When does incompetence become a moral issue? Britain’s prime minister must bear responsibility as the head of an administration under which a culture of mediocrity and dysfunction has led to things falling apart in virtually all departments – because this state of anomie reflects his chaotic personality. This is the fundamental moral issue raised by Boris Johnson’s prime ministership.

So he bears responsibility for the mounting congestion at hospital A&E departments, for the long queues of trucks on the road to Dover, for the ruined holiday plans of those whose flights were cancelled, for the bureaucratic delays in admitting Ukrainian refugees, for the failure to extract opponents of the Taliban from Afghanistan last summer, even for the soaring price of fuel at petrol pumps across the land. And, most seriously, for the tardy and insufficient help available to poor families who cannot afford to feed their own children.