Politics, said the conservative philosopher Michael Oakeshott, is more about temperament than it is about belief. It is a trade in emotion and vestigial feelings stripped of all logic.

There is an obvious strategy for Labour MPs who want to ensure that the government cannot proceed with its Chequers plan to leave the European Union. This strategy would also guarantee that the next prime minister would be a sensible moderate rather than an ideological zealot of the Mogg-Johnson variety. They would command cabinet seats in a government with a fair chance of victory in 2022. All they need to do is to cross the floor of the House of Commons and join the Conservative Party.

Whenever Labour MPs assemble to discuss the state they are