Our seemingly perpetual Euro-drama has reached Psalm 2:1 levels – “Why do the nations” – or, in this case, does the nation – “so furiously rage together?” As the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill scours its way through its House of Commons Committee stage and on to the House of Lords, that great passage in Handel’s Messiah will ring in my ears.

The Britain-and-Europe Question has long possessed the power to disrupt.