Not long now before Rees-mogg storms No 10 to stop this folly

Britain voted to leave the EU. Donald Trump became president. A party led by Jeremy Corbyn won more than 40 per cent of the vote at a general election. We in the media really should have grasped it by now: the old order is shattered. Revolution is in the air. There are no more certainties.

But even so, I never thought I’d see the day when Philip Davies was anointed as the new darling of the Left, while Dennis Skinner outed himself as a Blairite.

Let’s start with Mr Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley. Until yesterday, we always felt we knew where we stood with him. He was a proper, old-school, Pc-gone-mad, whatever-happened-to-free-speech Right-winger. A man who railed against “militant feminists”, loudly opposed the ban on smoking in cars with children present, and once called for the disabled to “have the option” of working for under the minimum wage.

Yet at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, this staunch foe of socialism was quoted approvingly, and with all

‘Next, Mr Davies will march against austerity and selfidentify as a pansexual transwoman of colour’

sincerity, by none other than Jeremy Corbyn, who was glad to note Mr Davies’s dismay at Government cuts to the police. Mr Davies nodded earnestly.

Moments later, Mr Davies was called to ask a question. What would he ask? Why civil service quislings had betrayed Brexit? Why the BBC had capitulated to women’s lib with an all-female edition of Today? The witch hunt against the philanthropists of the Presidents Club? No. Instead, after praising Mr Corbyn (“There’s clearly hope for him yet”), he passionately urged the Prime Minister to restore the role of Disability Commissioner.

The Commons was still reeling from this unexpected outbreak of liberal dogooding when the Speaker called on Dennis Skinner. What would the hard-left Labour MP for Bolsover, ex-miner and scourge of centrist sell-outs have to say for himself?

Believe it or not: he eulogised the Tony Blair years as “a golden period”, and declared the NHS could only be saved by funding it the way New Labour did.

So there you have it. Next, Mr Davies will march against austerity, no-platform Katie Hopkins and self-identify as a pansexual transwoman of colour – while, across the chamber, Mr Skinner will laud outsourcing, announce he’s relaxed about the “filthy rich”, and back a second invasion of Iraq.

The sky is no longer blue, the grass not green. Two and two edges ever closer to five. It’s only a matter of time before Jacob Rees-mogg paints his face blue with yellow stars and storms No 10 to demand an end to all this Brexit folly.