Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott is not someone I usually see eye-to-eye with on political matters, but in the case of former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, I’m afraid I can’t fault the old Trot.

Responding to Ms Lucas’s frankly extraordinary idea that the way to avoid a No-Deal Brexit is for Parliament to pass a vote of no-confidence in the Government, and then for an all-female emergency Cabinet to take over, Abbott tweeted: ‘Backdoor route to a National Government. Didn’t work for Ramsey McDonald [sic] and won’t work now, whatever the gender of the participants.’

She wasn’t the only one. Even Emily Thornberry — one of the women to whom Lucas extended her invitation to join this cross-party cabal of all the ladies — politely declined.

I don’t know where Ms Lucas has been sitting for the past few years, but, in case she hasn’t noticed, getting any sort of cross-party consensus in the House of Commons on anything more testing than the provision of paperclips for the civil service is highly unlikely

Of course Lucas — MP for Brighton Pavilion — has never been part of mainstream politics.

Elected on an uncompromising eco-ticket, she’s also an arch-Remainer — one of the majority of MPs whose refusal to accept the result of the 2016 referendum and work with the Government on striking a deal with Brussels is arguably — and ironically — the principal reason we now find ourselves on the brink of leaving without one.

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott is not someone I usually see eye-to-eye with on political matters, but in the case of former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, I’m afraid I can’t fault the old Trot

Still, even by her standards, this proposal is extreme. Not that she would see it that way.

In her eyes, she is mounting a heroic last stand against ‘a coup led by a small group of Right-wing libertarians’ hell-bent on implementing ‘the most extreme No-Deal version of Brexit’ and ‘creating more divisions, scapegoating our friends and neighbours, and ignoring the inequality and democratic deficit that fuelled the Brexit vote’. Quite the heroine, our Caroline.

Elected politicians should be ‘setting aside our political differences in the national interest’ in a bid to work towards ‘reconciliation’, she says.

Not in itself such a bad idea, although arguably she’s dreamt it up three years and two prime ministers too late.

In any case, if she’s so keen on reconciliation, why didn’t she set aside her own personal views when Mrs May put forward a deal the EU had accepted — and vote with, rather than against, the Withdrawal Agreement?

And this is before we have even got onto Lucas’s utterly bonkers’ assertion that the reason we need a Cabinet of women is that the Gordian knot of Brexit can only ever be untied if we exclude men from the process.

What’s more, she has subsequently had to apologise for suggesting an ‘all-white list of women’ for her proposed emergency Cabinet.

One might suggest her argument is somewhat undermined by the fact that we’ve just had a female PM who, despite her best and most persistent efforts, failed to get Parliament to agree on anything.

Yet Lucas insists women ‘have shown they can bring a different perspective to crises, are able to reach out to those they disagree with and cooperate to find solutions’. She says they are less ‘tribal’ than men, more prepared to compromise.

Emily Thornberry and Yvette Cooper are pictured above. The truth is, whether a person succeeds or fails has nothing to do with gender, as it has nothing to do with race or religion

Heidi Allen and Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson are pictured above. The idea that a self-appointed multi-party coalition of (often very tribal) women would succeed where an actual female PM could not is for the birds

To back up this sweeping generalisation, she explains fatuously that ‘it was two women, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, who began the Peace People movement during the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland; it was two women, Christiana Figueres and Ségolène Royal, who were key to the signing of the Paris Climate agreement’.

This makes about as much sense as those who have suggested — and there are a few — that Boris Johnson will triumph where May fell for the simple reason that he is a man. Again, nonsense.

Justine Greening is pictured with Anna Soubry. [An all-woman Cabinet] is an example of so-called liberal fascism at its finest: the notion that your own world view is so inherently superior to anyone else’s that those who do not conform to it forfeit all rights to participate in the democratic process

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is pictured on Loose Women this morning, while Kirsty Blackman is pictured right. The truth is, that until MPs accept the referendum result, in which the British people voted to leave the EU, there is not a man, woman or child who can clean up this mess

Liz Saville Roberts is pictured with Sylvia Hermon. If naivety tinged with stupidity were all (Caroline Lucas) were guilty of, it wouldn’t be so bad. After all, if elected politicians can’t indulge in the belief that they can re-shape the world, who can?

The truth is, whether a person succeeds or fails has nothing to do with gender, as it has nothing to do with race or religion. Margaret Thatcher’s formidable success proved that, as have countless other women at the top of their fields.

There are just as many capable women as there are capable men, and vice versa, both within and without politics. It’s ability that matters, and some people are just more blessed with it than others.

What is so striking about Lucas’s proposal is not just the blatant sexism of her decision to discount the abilities of 50 per cent of the population — which is, of course, breathtakingly hypocritical, since she can’t stop impressing on us how committed she is to the causes of equality.

It’s also this kind of dogma that undermines the very cause for which feminists have been fighting for decades. It implies we need positive discrimination because we’re not good enough to make it on equal terms with men.

What’s more, her claim that women are less tribal, and therefore prepared to compromise to find solutions, undermines the female sex further.

It paints women as not prepared to stick to their guns, who’ll forgo their principles for the sake of an easy solution. Above all, it’s a complete fantasy.

I don’t know where Ms Lucas has been sitting for the past few years, but, in case she hasn’t noticed, getting any sort of cross-party consensus in the House of Commons on anything more testing than the provision of paperclips for the civil service is highly unlikely.

The idea that a self-appointed multi-party coalition of (often very tribal) women would succeed where an actual female PM could not is for the birds.

But if naivety tinged with stupidity were all Lucas were guilty of, it wouldn’t be so bad. After all, if elected politicians can’t indulge in the belief that they can re-shape the world, who can?

No, it’s the fact that, as well as being completely pie-in-the-sky, her plan is also arrogant, non-democratic and undeniably elitist.

When played the recording of the man’s anguish by a local radio station, one protester, Zoe Jones, simply said: ‘I still believe we are doing the right thing,’ adding that, distressing as it was, it wouldn’t stop her protesting because ‘we are all humans’. Only some, of course, are more human than others

What she is effectively proposing is an all-female dictatorship where the only requirement to sign up is that you have a womb and agree with her.

This is an example of so-called liberal fascism at its finest: the notion that your own world view is so inherently superior to anyone else’s that those who do not conform to it forfeit all rights to participate in the democratic process.

It’s a kind of dangerous self-righteousness that is cropping up ever more. In groups such as Extinction Rebellion, for example, who believe the moral superiority of their argument about climate change means they have the right to impose their agenda on everyone else, disrupting lives to the point where — as happened a few weeks ago in a motorway blockade — they stopped a son seeing his dying father in Bristol.

When played the recording of the man’s anguish by a local radio station, one protester, Zoe Jones, simply said: ‘I still believe we are doing the right thing,’ adding that, distressing as it was, it wouldn’t stop her protesting because ‘we are all humans’. Only some, of course, are more human than others.

In groups such as Extinction Rebellion, for example, who believe the moral superiority of their argument about climate change means they have the right to impose their agenda on everyone else, disrupting lives to the point where — as happened a few weeks ago in a motorway blockade — they stopped a son seeing his dying father in Bristol. Extinction Rebellion protesters are pictured blocking traffic in Birmingham last week

It’s the kind of mindset that carries chilling echoes of the past: the expression of an arrogant, self-entitled elite whose refusal to acknowledge anything other than its own view — in this case, the notion that Brexit is a massive right-wing conspiracy and not a genuine demand for change from the majority of British voters —makes them blind to the risks they take in dismissing anyone who offends them.

Inevitably, if the electorate can’t get their wishes respected by mainstream politicians, they will turn to more populist figures to get the job done. And, as we have seen, the path of populism is not a pretty one.

The truth is, that until MPs accept the referendum result, in which the British people voted to leave the EU, there is not a man, woman or child who can clean up this mess.

If Caroline Lucas really wants to ‘find a way forward’, she should stop playing Fantasy Feminist Cabinet, and concentrate on respecting the wishes of the people who pay her salary: the British electorate.