GKN’s radar system is an extraordinary invention. It is completely invisible. It has the ability to get in people’s minds and render their speech nonsense. For the GKN radar is exactly that: an invention. It doesn’t exist.

The GKN radar has become a new battlefield for the trade unions. Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, went on BBC radio to declare that the government should belatedly intervene in the £8 billion takeover by Melrose on national security grounds, arguing: “If I was flying a military aircraft kitted out by a GKN radar, I would be worried.” So would we. Not just because Ms O’Grady doesn’t hold a pilot’s licence, but because GKN’s radar system is a fabrication of the fictional kind.

To be charitable, Ms