How much pain are Brexiteers prepared to inflict on us?

When this magazine endorsed Brexit, it did so in typically trenchant and elegant fashion. ‘Out and into the world’ we said. The central thesis of The Spectator’s case for Leave was that the European Union has become a parody of itself, a sclerotic, irredeemably unreformable, set of institutions that are, at some core, fundamental, level intrinsically incompatible with this country’s instincts, traditions, and future.

Even so, that case, forceful though it was and certainly hardly without merit, still suffered from the wishful thinking that has, alas, been so typical of so many Brexiteers. Britain’s departure would, we wrote, ‘show reform-minded Europeans that theirs is not a lost cause’ though how the departure of the most reform-minded major country in Europe would do this was, sadly, left unexplained. Moreover, we wrote, ‘the British way is to fight rather than quit’ although in this instance it transpires that we fight by quitting.

Still, this was much better stuff than most of what was offered by the Leave campaign even if it glossed over the fact that Remain voters were hardly enthused by everything Brussels-and-Strasbourg-related either.