Will Britain continue to be dragged back closer and closer to the EU so that when we eventually rejoin, in say a decade’s time, our politicians can present it as a mere exercise in regularising an arrangement which effectively already exists? At some point it must have dawned on most frustrated remainers that they were never going to reverse Brexit in one fell swoop. That would reopen old wounds, motivate a strong reaction from Brexiteers and a sense of ennui. Such an attempted move would probably be doomed by the ‘Brenda from Bristol’ effect alone (the elderly lady who reacted to the declaration of the 2017 election campaign by exclaiming to a reporter, ‘What, another one?’). But what if Britain were to be drawn back into the bloc by degrees?

It isn’t just on free movement that Britain risks being drawn back into the EU’s sphere of........

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