Sudden resignation after a loss leaves political parties in turmoil. Ed “Hell yes I’m tough enough” Miliband turned out not to be. He went in a puff of smoke, but continues to be a good MP.  

We now look back on John Major, who had reigned over non-stop sleaze, and who made his resignation speech and then went off to watch some cricket, more fondly than someone like Blair who is forever tainted by the Iraq war.  

History can be kinder than we can know in the moment. We can now see that without Major there would have been no Good Friday Agreement.  

If Johnson is wanting his place in the history books then he should be thinking about something which feels deeply improbable: a dignified exit.  

But why leave in a different manner to the one in which he has governed: chaotic, irresponsible and directionless?

There will be no shortage of after-dinner buffoonery. This was but a blip, surely. Shame about the country and all that.

He should leave No 10 on a zip wire, dangling in the middle of it, as in that famous picture. Those that want to help him down may do so after a few days. The rest of us will just wave. And wonder how he ever reached such heights in the first place.