It goes without saying that we’re in a world where old-fashioned guff like principles are strictly for losers. After all, if a chap can’t be nimble enough to sacrifice core beliefs on the alter of self-advancement, what’s the actual point?

Think of Boris ‘two columns’ Johnson, ready to support or jettison Brexit depending on what might best pay his bloated alimony. What’s that you say? Are you suggesting he didn’t have the needs of the people of Britain at heart? How very dare you!

Or consider tribune of the people, Nigel Farage, the man who wanted everyone out of Europe except his own children and, if possible himself. The very man, getting by on his meagre $4 million , an occasional attender in the House of Commons, who told us weeks before the election that standing for parliament would be the wrong thing for him to do.

You might, then, have been startled last week when Zia Yusuf, Reform party chairman (none of this wokery Chair business, thank you very much) resigned on something close to an ethical issue.

The tale –  worth a quick revisit – began at the end of last week when newly elected Reform MP, Sarah Pochin, decided that the best way to make her mark on arrival in the House was to call for better social housing, a fair living wage for all and the introduction of a tax system in which those able to do so contributed to a safe and healthy society. That’s what the good people of Runcorn and Helsby had sent her Westminster to do.

Well, that would have been encouraging, wouldn’t it? But what Sarah chose to make her mark about was how women dressed in the street. She’s got a point, hasn’t she? You’ve seen them. Flesh everywhere, bits out and next week’s washing all on display. An absolute disgrace and just the sort of thing that demands state intervention. What’s a government for, if not to tell women what clothes to wear?

But it was, of course, just one particular choice of garb, the burqa – something so few Muslim women wear that it is statistically insignificant – that was irritating Sarah. Zia,  just for 48 hours, woke from his fever dream to realise that, oh my goodness, I’m working for a racist organisation and called her action ‘dumb’. And, to prove this wasn’t just a spiritual reaction on his part, he pointed out that the issue wasn’t even the party’s policy………well, not yet anyway.

Rejoice, then, at the repentance of one sinner (yes, I know, wrong religion). A man prepared to stand up for his beliefs and values. A man who would walk away, head high, from such raw prejudice.

But the whole world had been watching, including the leader of His Majesty’s Opposition, Kemi Badenoch – a woman landed with a party so desperate for a reason to exist, it positively slavers over the titbits regurgitated by its rivals – especially if there’s an alluringly strong whiff of racism about them.

Look. Look at me, cries Kemi. I think the burqa’s a bad thing too. Me. Watch me.

And maybe Zia did watch. And he did rethink himself. And so did he go again to the public and he did say, ‘No. You thought me a man of principle but I was, in fact, just a bit tired.’ And he did confound his critics and did say unto them, ‘Actually, I think we should definitely be telling women what to wear in public.’ And he did return to his beliefs that those set to rule over us could forget the poor, the desperate and the neglected and should, yea, make a fuss over sartorial choices.

Zia is, of course, the useful idiot of the Reform party that he has been employed to ‘professionalise’  – to no great effect, it seems, given their councillors reluctance to present themselves at boring old meetings. But like his boss and those in the company he has chosen to keep, if he gives you his word about something, I’d advise you to check your pockets immediately.