Resisting anything but temptation, restraint is futile particularly when there’s a luscious lake from which to fish out opportunities to grow.

David Cameron seemed perplexed last year when he was wheeled out of each tête-à-tête with his opposite numéreaux essentially having evolved nothing in renegotiating terms by which Britain placed itself amid the European Union. This lack might have told him something about the EU appetite to mop Britain’s brow and cater to whimsical idiosyncracies.

After a good few centuries, Britain’s epoch of treating the rest of the world as it treated India up until Partition is over. This cannot have been more starkley demonstrated than by voisins’ voracious vocalizing to speed the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and begin ejection.

As the Prime Minister’s finger has never been sensitive to the pulse of change, it’s understandable he seems not yet to have discerned that everything is now altered. The more gracefully the UK steps aside giving another a turn at global plutocracy, the more strength and stability is retained and gained.

There is every hope this severe pruning to the country’s self esteem will support luscious growth in its compassion and humanity. It won’t be pretty, nor pain free. Ultimately though, it is plausible to posit a future of kindness and a modicum of humility.