Forget about talking the country down: the Government has inadvertently decided to downplay its own ability and effectiveness. The logic of its warped argument, pushed to its limit, is that all that is good in the UK today is thanks to the EU, rather than thanks to its own efforts. It could end up looking feeble, incompetent and unimaginative, rather than a sensible and realistic player in a complex game of foreign policy. In fact, the more the Government invokes Armageddon scenarios in the event of a Brexit, the more it encourages one or more of the leading lights in the Leave campaign to stand up and say that it would be very different with them in charge – in other words, to present themselves as an alternative, rather than merely as an opponent.