Since the exit poll dropped on the night of December 12, Britain’s liberal commentariat have lined up to pass judgment on a failed movement. Their columns deride a political force that reached for the stars but landed in the ditch; that insisted on ideological purity and ended up with nothing to show; that ignored public opinion and spent years preaching to the converted before succumbing to the harsh test of electoral reality.

Self-awareness has never been these pundits’ strong suit, so we shouldn’t expect them to realize that they’re describing their own reflection. They rail against Corbynism, but their patronizing strictures could be much more aptly applied to the amorphous movement known as “Continuity Remain.” Boris Johnson’s triumph at the polls was a crushing defeat for the anti-Brexit campaigners of the liberal center. Their strategy has proved to be an abject failure.

That failure is nothing to celebrate. Hard-right, xenophobic nationalism has routed left and center alike in British politics. There’s no point reveling in the eclipse of Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat leader who claimed she might become the country’s next prime minister but finished the campaign by losing her own seat. “Swinson for PM” was always a joke; Boris Johnson as PM is the reality everyone will have to cope with for the next five years.