So much in British politics depends on the prospect of betrayal. If Brexit exerts a gravitational pull to the nationalist right, that is compounded by the fear that the “metropolitan elite” will, yet again, let “the British people” down. And of course, it will. How can it do otherwise?

All of the Brexit campaigns fought their way to victory on the basis that the free movement of labor within the European Union had to end — if nothing else, to protect the innocence of our almost-privatized National Health Service from those rampaging Turks. And yet, here is David Davis, the minister for leaving the European Union, a hardline Brexiter, being slapped down by the prime minister for suggesting that Britain could not stay in the single market if it meant ceding control of borders.

The minister in question is no loner in the Conservative Party. Lest it be forgotten, before she was strong-armed (by means of which only the rulers of hell are apprised), former debt trader Andrea Leadsom was mustering a surprisingly strong opposition to May’s coronation.