Who can spare us from this Brexit disaster?

God help us all, because no-one else can or will in these present circumstances. If you wished to apportion some blame for the shambolic state of British politics these days you will not be short of candidates to bear some measure of the opprobrium they all, to one degree or another, deserve.

Spare us from Theresa May whose definition of Brexit hemmed her in from the very beginning. Spare us from a Prime Minister who learnt nothing from David Cameron’s failures and continued to prize Tory unity above almost everything else and continued to do so long past the point at which it became obvious to everyone else that Tory unity was both unattainable and, more importantly, undesirable. Spare us from a Prime Minister who lacks the emotional intelligence to run a kindergarten, let alone a country.

Spare us from Nick Timothy, too, whose interpretation of Brexit contributed hugely to May’s blundering. Spare us from a big brain who failed to appreciate that gaining some measure of “loser’s consent” was vital if an orderly and satisfactory Brexit was to be achieved. But no, the 48 per cent were written out and written off, treated as though their views were of no importance. We’ll do it our way even if this means doing it exceedingly badly. Because we are the thinkers, you see.

And spare us from David Cameron, whose complacency and lack of iron contributed mightily to losing the referendum in the first place. Spare us the memoirs of a man who allowed cabinet ministers to campaign against government policy without having to sacrifice their jobs. Spare us from that blithe assurance that everything would be all right in the end because chaps like us are the sort of chaps who know what we’re doing because that’s what chaps like us are like.