I have been hoping for a second referendum for months. Brexit is strangling the life out of politics, paralysing the government, stalling the economy, embittering divisions in both parties. Theresa May is impaled like a wriggling fish on a hook, trapped by Eurosceptics menacing her on the one hand and the frustrated, exasperated EU rejecting her compromises on the other.

Businesses alarmed by the chaos are voting with their balance sheets, cutting investment or slashing jobs. There is no consensus for any form of Brexit, and the muddle is not remotely the glorious prospect Brexiteers promised. Polls show a faint shift from Leave to Remain as some uneasy voters register the mess. This is surely the moment for agonised Remainers like me to argue