Something is stirring. In WhatsApp groups and Westminster pubs, wherever wonks, spads, and other SW1 types gather, there’s a name on everybody’s lips. It’s like John Galt in Atlas Shrugged or Tyler Durden in Fight Club. It’s at once a wail of despair and a call to arms. Who is this man they whisper of? Who is “Nicolas (30 ans)”?

“Nicolas (30 ans)” is the protagonist of “Le contrat social”, a meme posted onto Twitter, as it then was, in April 2020.