Certainly, the signal being sent by many Conservatives these days couldn’t be clearer: we want out. Even members of the Cabinet are, sub rosa, declaring themselves ready to leave. Not unnaturally, you can barely open a newspaper or read a blog these days without coming across a prediction of inevitable exit.

Still, there’s a fact in all this that gets curiously little attention. The Prime Minister doesn’t want Britain to leave the EU, and neither does his Government.