What better way to reflect on these unpredictable - and to some, unsettling - post-referendum days than to tell a Jewish joke? Which is just what Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis did at the United Synagogue council this week.

A man in synagogue was given the honour of being called to the Torah. What is your Hebrew name, he was asked. "Esther bat [daughter of] Avraham," he replied.

"Esther bat Avraham?" repeated the incredulous warden. "Yes", said the man. "In these uncertain times, I'm putting everything in my wife's name."