That the obsessions of Westminster do not necessarily coincide with those of the country has been obvious for a long time, but even so, the dislocation between last week’s news and this weekend’s opinion polls looks bizarre.
The government looks in a greater shambles than any in history. We have a Prime Minister who has been in office for two months and has yet to win a Commons vote, who has been cornered and attacked for anything he tries to do, whom BBC lawyers seem happy for one of the corporation’s comedians to brand a ‘liar and a racist’. The Conservative party is in open warfare, with 21 MPs ejected from the party by Downing Street and two ministers resigning not just their jobs but their membership of the Conservative party.
And what do the polls tell us? That the Conservatives have increased their lead over the past week.
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