The Conservative party has finally found a thought around which it can unite. Those who want Boris Johnson gone and those who are helping him to cling on can agree that the Tories have landed themselves in the worst of all worlds. The regicides mustered sufficient strength in the confidence vote to smash his authority, but they lacked the numbers to evict him. He looks over, but he is not yet out.
Even some of his most devoted supporters groan that it leaves a broken-backed leader in office, but not in power. That may not bother him as much as you might expect. He has always been more interested in being prime minister for the title, rather than doing the job. At a time when Britain faces a daunting array of economic, social and international challenges, it should greatly trouble everyone else that an already desperate and dysfunctional premiership will become even more so.
