Last month, the Economist announced that Britain was “rediscovering the virtues of moderation” after going through a populist phase over the previous decade: “A more rational form of politics is taking hold, in which competence matters more than ideology.”

It linked this claim to the exit of two “divisive” politicians from the national stage: Nicola Sturgeon and Jeremy Corbyn. Sturgeon happened to announce her resignation as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) on the same day that Corbyn’s successor, Keir Starmer, pledged to block him from standing as a Labour candidate in the next general election.

The Independent columnist John Rentoul also welcomed the simultaneous departures as a promising sign for the future. Rentoul, a long-serving high priest at the temple of Blairism, now hoped for a “calmer, more inclusive politics” as Britain “finally returned to an even keel.”