Despite Lib Dem dissent and doubts in the liberal media, there appears to be a virtual consensus among England’s political establishment that the result of the withdrawal process is not in doubt. Scotland’s leading historian believes this is a myth that must be punctured 

For more than 40 years, my generation lived through the Cold War and the threat of The Bomb; perhaps nothing can be quite as frightening as that possibility of nuclear annihilation. When the Soviet empire collapsed, it seemed to us that Europe was entering a long-term era of peace and freedom, and we looked forward to the spread of democratic government across the central and eastern nations of the continent.

The transformation did not come without growing pains, as the former Yugoslavia descended into savage ethnic conflict. But even that horror eventually came to a peaceful end due to the intervention of Nato forces and the hammering out of peace deals acceptable to the former combatants.

Harmony returned to Europe, buttressed not only by the military alliance of Nato but by the enlargement of the European Union (EU). Its founding fathers saw the creation of a common market after the Second World War as a bulwark against the catastrophe of another conflict in Europe. In that respect, at least, the project has been a stunning success.

BUT those who predicted “the end of history”, with all the peoples of the continent contentedly living in liberal democracies and enjoying growing prosperity, are profoundly mistaken. We are living in the most turbulent period of European history since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and perhaps even since 1945.