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It’s unusual for history to be written by the losers, but that’s what has happened during the last two years: it ought to be a textbook demonstration for future historiographers. The pro-EU lobby were screaming for a second referendum from daybreak on 23rd June 2016; they boasted of 2 million signatures to their petition by 25th; yet now they claim to be motivated by a supposed change in public opinion or the disastrous “May deal”.

And against those here who have suggested that the electorate were bamboozled by an unending torrent of Leave “lies” which drowned out the puny, under-resourced trickle of Remain common sense, may I call the following witness from that long-distant past?

“Nigel Farage may well come across to some as a comical Little Englander but that doesn’t make the campaign he has led — finally bringing about this day of destiny for our country — wrong. Boris Johnson has shown unexpected mettle and poise as well as the charm we have come to expect in leading the Brexit movement to this surprising point, where nobody can confidently predict what the outcome will be on Friday morning. That we would be in this position was evidently not expected by David Cameron and George Osborne. Their resort to extravagant scaremongering and more or less open threats to Brexiteers has been unedifying. When they have such a preponderance of leaders from every area of life, from politicians abroad to the heads of every kind of institution, firmly backing the Remain case, such shrillness has only served to undermine their credibility.”

That was an editorial from the London Evening Standard on the eve of the referendum. Then, as now, the Standard was staunchly pro-EU – though a bit more of a newspaper and a bit less of a propaganda organ.