Rishi Sunak announces his departure date

Small election in Britain; many Tory dead

As always, many thanks for being here and for supporting The Debatable Land. Those of you who have upgraded to paid subscriptions are the best of the good folk and doubly, no trebly, appreciated.

And so, at long last, here we have it. The era of Conservative government which began in 2010 will end on Thursday July 4th. Sir Keir Starmer will succeed Rishi Sunak as prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This is how the song ends: with a great sigh of relief.

That, you fancy, is the mood in Downing Street too. The prime minister and his advisors may talk as though an improbable revival is possible but, in their hearts, they know this is not going to happen. The ghosts of 1997 stalk the realm. Alea iacta est and all that.

In truth it was cast some time ago. Whatever faint hopes the Conservative and Unionist party had were extinguished by the Great Liz Truss Misadventure. That was the moment at which the opinion polls - which is to say, the people - shi…