Seven thousand miles further south, the Falkland Islands Government uses similar language. Their representative has said that Britain leaving the EU could be “catastrophic” for them because nearly three-quarters of their exports go to the EU market, while they are shut out of most of South America by Argentine pressure.

Not only would the Falklands’ export market be in danger, but so would the guaranteed solidarity of all 28 EU member states in recognising British sovereignty over the islands. Whenever an Argentine president launches a new diplomatic drive against the self-determination of the islanders, as the last one did, they receive no hearing at all in European capitals. Remove the obligations to Britain in the European treaties, and a future troublesome president will sense the chance to be bolder.

Closer to home, the improved relations between the UK and the Irish Republic are one of the incontestable diplomatic achievements of recent decades. The scenes I witnessed in 2011, of the people of Dublin and Cork lining the streets and cheering the Queen were unimaginable not many years before. Relations between London and Dublin are by far the warmest they have ever been since Irish independence, and the people of Northern Ireland are among the beneficiaries of that.