Despite everything that has unfolded — all the chaos, all the gaffes — since Boris Johnson first came to public prominence almost two decades ago, the former foreign secretary’s critics still labour under a delusion. They assume mistakenly that Boris plans things; that, despite all the evidence, his outrages are the product of a highly organised mind implementing a cunning stratagem.

What devilish Trumpian populist scheme was he hatching, ask his opponents, when he wrote in his Monday column in another newspaper that women wearing the burka resemble letterboxes or bank robbers? What, as he rattled through 1,250 words at high speed, was he thinking?

The answer, I’ll wager, is not much beyond: “Cripes, it is almost time for a gin and tonic after cricket