Johnson, Cummings and their colleagues seek to rule this country without belonging to it. They are like the colonial governors of an overseas territory, laying down laws that apply only to the natives, showing nothing but contempt for the people they instruct.

Their allegiance is to capital, wherever it resides. Faced with a choice between the wishes of an offshored hedge fund or the needs of desperate people in the UK, they will always side with the hedge fund. Their loyalties are elsewhere.