Peter Rhodes: Can you never remember a face?

THE British political system for beginners. First you hold a referendum on leaving the EU. The Brexit side wins. Next, the leading Brexiteer vanishes into the woodwork. Then the ruling party appoints an anti-Brexit prime minister. Hands up anyone who seriously thinks this country is ever going to leave the EU.

AND if we can ignore and overturn the result of a nationwide referendum, can anyone explain why we could not ignore and overturn the result of a general election?

BORIS Johnson yesterday compared some folk's anguished response to the Brexit vote to the "contagious mourning" that followed the death of Princess Diana. He has a point. Suddenly, the streets of London fill with people who seem to be in deep distress but can't explain exactly why. And two weeks later they've forgotten all about it.

MEANWHILE, in a weekend column raging against Brexit, one commentator warns that quitting the EU would turn Britain into "a dimly-lit, poverty-stricken, festering mess of warts, mud and minority-bashing incidents on the bus home every evening." And who is this champion of public transport and defender of minorities? Jeremy Clarkson.

I AM not a great fan of re-enactors, those middle-aged blokes who squeeze themselves into khaki to play at being soldiers of the World Wars. But the artist Jeremy Deller's street drama "We're Here Because We're Here," featuring 1,500 young volunteers dressed as WW1 squaddies in locations across the UK, was something different. It was a solemn, low-key way to mark the centenary of the First Day of the Somme and it beautifully captured the mood of the moment.

BEST of all, "We're Here Because We're Here" was entirely unexpected, in contrast to the Battle of the Somme itself, which the Germans knew all about weeks in advance.

WHO Are You Again? (Radio 4) examined prosopagnosia, the inability to recognise faces. In serious cases, parents are unable to recognise their spouse or children. But I am sure there are millions of us with milder forms of the condition. I am useless at remembering faces and got hopelessly confused watching the film The Departed. It makes much more sense when you discover that Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon are not one and the same person.

I ENJOYED the rare moment of political levity provided by the 81-year-old Labour MP Paul Flynn who, after a lifetime on the back benches has joined Labour's troubled front bench. He declared: "For the past 26 years I've been a backbencher by choice, and that wasn't just my choice, it was the choice of the past five leaders of my party." His gentle self-mockery gave us a smile at a time when pomposity is rampant and smiles are rare.

I DO hope Jeremy Corbyn hangs on. The Labour leader was elected by the people, or at least by anyone prepared to pay £3 to join the Labour Party, and he surely cannot be ditched on the whim of a few MPs. If the MPs vote to chuck him out, the people will vote to keep him and he could spend the rest of his political career being voted out and in and never going anywhere. The Hokey-Cokey-Corbyn.