I was long amazed that a whole political class could behave with such fecklessness. But then there was Trump in 2016 and one clown simply commandeered the bulk of one of the two major parties. A US based analysts has suggested that the way to make the GOP pay a price for their slavish embrace of Trump is to create and run a more traditional Conservative party to attract the votes of the minority of Republicans who are revolted by Trump, as getting those voters to vote Democratic is a very hard lift.

Such a party would likely have its greatest impact in the general elections, by draining votes from the Trump supporting candidate and allowing Democratic candidates to win the general election. Such a strategy makes sense and I wish them well. It would provide a needed alternative for many principled conservatives, including one of my brothers. But I doubt such a strategy would work in the UK, due to the differences in the voting systems.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."