That is having a deep passion for one’s beliefs can totally negate even an intelligent person’ ability to see reason.

Professor Flint said the move by Mr Turnbull to dump the knights and dames honours system was a personal mission of revenge for the failed 1999 republic referendum.

The accusation is a serious one that questions Mr Turnbull’s integrity with the suggestion that he is motivated in his prime ministership by settling “old scores”.

Professor Flint believes Mr Turnbull has a long and bitter memory of the failed referendum of 1999, but we need not cast our memories back quite so far as that to see the catalyst for Mr Turnbull’s move on Monday.

We need only think back to 2014, when Mr Abbott announced he would reintroduce the imperial honours system after it had been in hibernation for nearly three decades. It was a decision he took without discussion with the Cabinet or party room.

That was a move that paved the way for a right royal air swing with one of Mr Abbott’s most embarrassing captain’s picks – a decision to bestow a knighthood on the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, in this year’s Australia Day honours.

It was a decision that sparked savage criticism, even from those firmly in his corner.

His own ministers slammed the decision, quick to realise it would open the government to ridicule. Conservative commentator and Abbott friend Andrew Bolt described it as “pathetically stupid” and “just such a very, very, very stupid decision”.

A lonely voice in defence of the decision at the time was of course that of Professor Flint, who said: "I think it's a worthy reward, he (Prince Philip) has had a very long connection with this country”.

At the time, Professor Flint did not feel the need to acknowledge that Mr Abbott’s position as a staunch monarchist may have clouded his judgment.

But in record time, on Monday, he had labelled the opposing view of Mr Turnbull as biased and vengeful.

We may have seen the labels of knights and dames but rest assured, the pots will keep labelling the kettles black.