Time to break cycle of frustration

Last week’s visits by British prime minister Boris Johnson to the Chancellery in Berlin and, later, to the Élysée Palace in Paris were characterised by the rabidly pro-Brexit press as a veni-vidi-vici moment for their champion.

Even in this post-truth age that seems overstretch fathered by Brexiteers’ proclivity to believe at least one impossible thing before breakfast. Mr Johnson’s meetings with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron were depicted as if a viceroy had run out of patience with a backsliding maharaja and visited him in his mountain citadel to remind him of the reality of his world.