When this was written, Mr Johnson had just come back from a meeting with some EU representatives, who had the unenviable task of being adult to his juvenile. Before going, he gave a jolly (though pernicious) description of himself as the “Incredible Hulk,” a character from the world of comics. And then off he greenly flew to terrorise the EU, but seems to have been terrorised himself, instead, absenting himself from a press conference that had been arranged. It was all hollow theatrics. The use of the word Flotsam in the title comes from a phrase I coined much earlier in this long series of stanzas – “Flotsam Johnson and Jetsam Gove.” At that time, the pair of them had just floated into view, thrown up by the raging tide. Now, these dreadful months later, they were riding yet higher.