We have a chancellor who sticks to his guns, except when he doesn’t. Unfunded tax cuts for the rich are so popular there will be more to come, except that, actually, come to think of it, now there will be one fewer. And in No 10, the lady’s not for turning, except when she is. Confused? Not half as much as this government is.
In a quarter of a century of covering party conferences I can’t remember a car crash like this, or a prime minister whose authority drained so fast. The speed of her decline is dizzying, as if someone had fast-forwarded the film straight to the big fight scene at the end; within the space of a week, she has lost the confidence of her MPs, the markets and the country. From abroad, we’re now viewed with the rubbernecking fascination the tabloids once reserved for Kerry Katona or Britney Spears in mid-breakdown. Is Britain … all right? Our friends are worried for us. And all the time, real money is draining from real pockets, alarmingly fast.
