Even the Queen is said not to be amused by the current state of representative democracy in her realm, and ordinary voters, whether leave or remain, are bored and confused

Our politics has been characterised by uncertainty for the last three years. It has upset both tradition and precedent and discomfited almost everyone. The majority of politicians, whatever their age or party, are uneasy and uncomfortable at their inability to see the way ahead. The Establishment – which is to say the people who run things, like Whitehall and the Law and the City – is profoundly rattled. The electorate, however they voted in the 2016 referendum, is bored by the prevalence of Brexit as the only topic in the national conversation and longs for some everyday predictability to be restored.

Meanwhile, the Queen is reported to be “disappointed” by the current class of politicians and its governing abilities. While this news took three years to reach the front pages of the newspapers, dating as it did from the time immediately following David Cameron’s resignation as prime minister, it is not difficult to presume that her disappointment is unlikely to have been allayed in the intervening period.