At this crucial time for our nation, we cannot carry on with a leader like this

Even those of us who have run out of oxygen with which to sigh at the PM's attitude to Brexit - the pathological procrastinating, the soviet-like surreptitiousness, the disgraceful lack of ambition - cannot help but be both disturbed and gripped by Theresa May's refusal to resign even now, as Parliament goes into meltdown, the Tory party cannibalises itself and Britain becomes an international laughing stock. What gallant, gloomy, deluded determination.

I can barely watch, through splayed fingers, as she goes running to the Netherlands to reopen talks about her deal, and European leaders greet her with stony bewilderment. She is like a bad, catchy, depressing, ballad. Her dreary sadomasochism both gets under one's skin and is irritating.

Yet, I still know plenty of Brits who say they feel sorry for her. This is intriguing. Even now, she has her fans. This is ultimately because the Prime Minister embodies one powerful half of the British psyche. The sludgy, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other half. The grinding half with low expectations. The half that phantom aches with a fading past of trenches and stiff upper lips, and thinks modern life should be equally sodden with misery and gumption.