With my Scottishness being more pragmatic than romantic, I am not much of a scholar of Robert Burns. However, even with my limited awareness, his passage from To a Louse came to mind on more than one occasion last week. “O wad some Power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us”.

Two major movements showed their lack of this power last week - Extinction Rebellion and the Remain Alliance. These movements share a number of similarities. Firstly, they have both emerged out of a genuine and real problem. Climate change is undeniably a global issue of enormous proportion. And those who are currently dedicating their lives to campaigning on the issue, we must accept, do so from an altruistic starting point. And Brexit, though a far smaller problem, also needs to be fixed and those who wish to fix it by scrapping it are perfectly entitled to devote their time to so doing, with the rest of us also accepting that they are decent people.

Their second commonality, though, is where their problems begin. For they are both characterised by a very heavy dosage of moral superiority. Extinction Rebellion protesters are so utterly convinced of their righteousness that they are completely unable to see the validity of any other argument. Even those of us who are personally exercised by the climate change problem and wish to contribute to fixing it in a realistic timescale are castigated by Extinction Rebellion as ruthless capitalists. Similarly, those in the Remain Alliance who wish to scrap Brexit find it almost impossible to see the perspective of someone like me: a Remain voter who believes that democratic legitimacy demands that the biggest democratic exercise in the country’s history is honoured.

It is this moral superiority that has led to both movements crossing a threshold this week, which in the final analysis is likely to lead to their emaciation. In both cases, their most hardcore supporters will never accept that any errors have been made, but in their pursuing of the purest form of their argument, both movements are now risking losing the goodwill of the "silent majority".

In the case of Extinction Rebellion, the removal of a protester from the roof of a tube train by London commuters was a metaphor for a misreading of the public mood. It had, before that, largely escaped the scrutiny it deserves, given that the execution of its net-zero by 2025 policy platform would probably involve the end of capitalism, mass unemployment and a global famine. But the disruption of electric mass-transit public transport, as well as making no strategic sense, may represent the peak of the curve for Extinction Rebellion, particularly in a country which is actually making seismic strides to alter its energy production away from coal, towards renewable sources. This could be the point at which the public says: “we’ll find our own way through this, thanks”. Or, worse still, the point at which the public association of Extinction Rebellion with climate change sets back the legitimate case for action.

And here we arrive at Brexit, again. I voted Remain in 2016, and I don’t regret that. I voted Remain for all the reasons that have come to fruition. It was never going to be an amicable divorce because the EU was always likely to make it difficult, and, as the Scottish independence referendum has taught us, the UK was always likely to enter a period of deep division. EU membership was a priority issue for a small proportion of people, and we are here essentially because of an internal schism in the Tory party.

The public has since been remarkably patient with politicians. We have allowed them to prolong the process in the hope that we may reach the most sensible outcome possible. We have allowed extensions, and a change of Prime Minister. We are even prepared, polling would suggest, to allow another general election, the third in four years, if it would serve a purpose to break the jam. But there comes a time where that silent majority says: “that’s it.”

That time came when Boris Johnson, against the received wisdom, it must be said, came back from Brussels with a new deal. Polling in the immediate aftermath, by YouGov, captured concisely the mood of the nation. Leaving with Johnson’s deal now leads Remain by 17 per cent. More than one in five Remain voters - yes Remain voters - want to take the deal. And only 60% of Labour voters - still notionally driving the Remain Alliance - now want to stay.

I would suggest that the scale of the Remain Alliance’s misreading of that public mood on "Super Saturday" will only become more evident in the days to come, with polling sentiment on the up for taking the deal, for Johnson himself and for the Tory party.

The morally superior always make tactical errors. And out of that moral superiority - that bunker mentality - has emerged this absolute clanger.

Actions have consequences. In truth, Remain has overplayed its hand to the degree that this is a win-win for Boris Johnson. The optics of the Remain Alliance, for the umpteenth time trying to thwart Brexit, will do him nothing but good in the tired eyes of the public. Despite that, it seems more likely than not that his deal will make it through the Commons, with a departure from the EU on or very shortly after 31st October.

There is then very little left in the tactical arsenal of the Labour Party or the Remain Alliance to prevent a General Election. And, at that, a General Election in a post-Brexit environment with very little role for, or visible presence of, Nigel Farage. There’s only one place for the Brexit Party’s votes to go, and that’s to Boris, complete with barrel-loads of Labour Leave votes in the Midlands, north of England and South Wales.

If this all sounds familiar, it is because it would represent the near-precise execution of the Dominic Cummings/Boris Johnson strategy from day one. They knew which votes were available to them, they pursued a deal while the media swallowed the narrative to the contrary, and they understood the rewards of a post-Brexit election. Both men, I suspect can put up being called dictators in Parliament and Nazis on a People’s Vote march. Their eyes have always been on a bigger prize - a landslide.

Remainers have blindly danced to their tune all along. We Remainers like to think we’re very clever, but the Alliance showed all the hallmarks of bunker mentality by failing to understand the public and business mood on Super Saturday.

Andy Maciver is Director of Message Matters