As someone who backed Remain – albeit with some reluctance – I take no pleasure in pointing out that the current, increasingly fraught state of affairs was both predictable and predicted. The bespoke “cake and eat it” relationship with Europe that Britain seeks was never going to be on offer, even though from an economic perspective it is the approach which would best suit not just Britain but Europe.

As with Greece, the European Commission continues to put its own self-preservation above the interests of the ordinary citizens it is meant to serve. Ask not what the EU can do for you, only what you can do for the EU.

In my experience, there is nothing inherently evil about those who run the EU; on the whole they are smart and relatively well-meaning people. But they are also prisoners of assumed institutional destiny. Perversely, this leads them to reject a mutually advantageous arrangement for fear that it might encourage others to ask for the same.

The integrity, not to say sanctity, of the single market must therefore be defended at all costs, like some deity whose original purpose has long since been forgotten. Such niceties as economic advancement must take second place. This was true with the eurozone debt crisis; it’s now true of Brexit.

Even those who were never part of the EU are subjected to the same thumbscrew. Switzerland, with its multitude of bilateral treaties, is sometimes cited as a potential model for Brexit Britain, but in truth suffers many of the same dilemmas as now confront the UK.