To marginalise the far right again will be a huge task. In the past few weeks, Britain’s many centrist MPs have finally made a start, by calling out thuggish language, and standing up for parliamentary democracy and the rule of law. And the hard right’s decision to associate itself so closely with Brexit may backfire if Britain actually leaves the EU, and the result is an anticlimax or a disaster. So far, Brexit has been a largely rhetorical project, and rhetoric is the area of politics where ranters and dreamers are most comfortable.

But even if Brexit ultimately damages them and their Tory imitators, they will find other grievances – multiculturalism, non-EU immigration – to keep their movement growing. To avoid aiding them, establishment politicians and journalists may even have to stop giving a voice to far-right figures who exploit confrontations with liberals – in other words, no-platforming, a tactic for which the left is usually condemned. In Mosley’s autobiography, written during the fourth decade of his BBC ban, he complains: “I have been the subject of frequent comment and attack, but … have always been denied the right to reply.” How sweet that frustration sounds now.