The hurly-burly of politics is often, in reality, a somewhat remote process. Journalists eager to break tomorrow’s story rather than probe and assess yesterday’s can whip up a synthetic excitement in what they admit is the ‘Westminster Village’. And the rest of us just get on with our lives.

Just occasionally, however, democracies throw up astonishingly fast-moving dramas. They are not all in the league of Thatcher’s toppling from power or the cliffhanger of the Scottish referendum. But last week was hard to beat for sheer speed and potential implications. And that was before the long-awaited Chilcott Report! Who says politics is dull? Who says our entire country is not affected?