So, farewell then, David Cameron. No Prime Minister has made a bigger miscalculation since Anthony Eden thought he could get away with invading Egypt in 1956 to recapture the Suez Canal. Going for a referendum on the country’s geopolitical state as if it was a council regulation on dog-fouling was a very big mistake.

The attractions must have seemed obvious at the time he made the promise, not the least of them being a hope that it might buy off divisions within his party and prevent defections to UKIP. But instead of lessening divisions, it has deepened them. His successor will have their work cut out trying to heal the party.

In his dignified resignation speech David Cameron told us "the will of the British people is an instruction that must be delivered". How this mess is to be to be cleared up is the first question. For nearly fifty years Europe has been the main project of the Foreign Office: any ambitious diplomat wanted to serve there. Hence Norman Tebbit’s quip that "The job of the Ministry of Agriculture is to look after farmers. The job of the Foreign Office is to look after foreigners."