In the romcom How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Kate Hudson’s journalist character is commissioned to write a piece about putting off a boyfriend in record time with erratic and often rude behaviour until he feels he has no choice but to dump her. The Tory party hasn’t yet interrupted a boys’ poker night to weep about the death of a “love fern”, but the way it is conducting its leadership contest smacks of a similar desperation to be dumped by the electorate.
Is this the How To Lose an Election Two Years Early guide? Are the insults flung between the camps the behaviour of a party that wants voters to have faith in it, when its leading lights don’t appear to have faith in each other? Is the power vacuum over the cost of living crisis just what has to happen while the leadership contest trundles on or a sign that everyone at the top, including the pair vying to take over, has little energy left and can’t be bothered to go all in to get a grip of the situation?
