Sketch: Self inflicted wounds cause Britain to leave Europe behind. Again.

NOT since foreign secretary Lord Castlereagh took the decision to mortally wound himself, driven half-mad by paranoia from the whisperings by his ministerial colleagues, has the country witnessed such self-inflicted foreign policy damage.

Like Castlereagh’s untimely demise, the overwhelming feeling about soon-to-be former Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to hold the referendum is it was all so unnecessary.

Just to prove a point to the playground bullies that he was up for a fight.

While British troops were busy fighting Napoleon to ward off the threat of a dominant Europe making British interests subservient, Castlereagh did once demand a duel with a rival for his job, George Canning. Pistols at dawn and the rest, which ended with him getting shot in the thigh. But he survived that time.

So did Canning, because Castlereagh’s aim – like his judgement – proved to be way off.

More than a decade later, following his death, it was Canning who replaced Castlereagh – a moment that historians like to use as the moment a struggling government shifted towards a more optimistic, outward-looking approach.

Canning’s foreign policy is best summarised by his quote, “I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old.”

Then it was about moving away from the European powers and seizing the opportunities in Central and South America, and elsewhere around the globe.

And so, nearly 200 years later, we turn again to a skilled orator and writer, more popular than liked, to seek Britain’s fortune across the oceans.

For the UK’s future propsperity, let’s hope it’s worth a shot.