We are constantly told how difficult it is to get agreement among the EU27 (ie, the European Union minus Britain) for anything. This week, however, they discussed at the European Council whether Britain had yet made “sufficient progress” over the first phase of Brexit talks to permit entry into the second phase, which will deal with trade negotiations. It had not, they agreed – “after a discussion,” the BBC reported, “lasting 90 seconds”.

So the Council announced that when it meets in December, it will review this matter again. If it feels like it, it will declare “sufficient progress” for phase two. If not, not. In the meantime, it condescends, it will talk to itself about what sort of trade matters it might wish to discuss with Britain one of these days.