The annual gathering of the world’s political and business elite in Davos increasingly features as a media hook to reflect upon, and typically lament, the wider state of the global economy. Last week, those watching British television may have found it curious that much of the footage broadcast on the news simply featured leading politicians giving their latest take on the status of the Brexit negotiations, interviews that could just as easily have been conducted in a Westminster television studio, albeit without the Alpine backdrop.

In so far as the World Economic Forum itself was discussed, analysis focused mainly on the so-called optics. Many Brexit campaigners could barely conceal their delight that leading Remain figures were articulating their case for a “people’s vote” while revelling