It was, according to one refugee charity, “an act of abject cruelty”.

And it even moved the former leader of Ukip Nigel Farage to denounce it as “mean”.

What could have united these two? Step forward the immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who didn’t like the look of murals decorating the walls of a reception centre in Dover for unaccompanied child asylum seekers.

The murals were of scenes from Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse films that were clearly designed to make the vulnerable youngsters at the Kent intake unit feel less vulnerable.

Mr Jenrick, however, had a different take, saying he didn’t want the centre to be too welcoming and ordered they should be painted over, lest they be seen as creating an environment in which children felt safe.

Yes, it is hard to fathom what was going through the minister’s brain when he ordered the cover-up. It could have been, well, what, exactly?

What possible threat could these images, one of a global icon, pose? Maybe the minister felt that he needed to make some gesture of political virility to avoid being cast as some kind of left-leaning, lily-livered Liberal.

Whatever the reason, he ploughed on regardless like a bull in an over-stocked china shop - reportedly even ignoring the opposition by staff at the holding centre who refused to do the job.

That meant the Home Office having to bring in private contractors to do its dirty work, something that ought to have set off alarm bells but didn’t.

Perhaps he was thinking ahead to a time when the processing centre might become overwhelmed and he didn’t want images of Mickey Mouse to be used in the inevitable news reports that would follow.

Politicians make judgement calls every day but not all of them result in quite such a backlash as this one.

The obvious remedy was for the minister to admit he had on this occasion got it wrong. But if there is one thing politicians dislike doing, it is performing a u-turn, even though voters would actually prefer some candour rather than - in this case, quite literally - a cover up.