Two primary parties plagued by ineptitude

A MOOD of panic is running through the clogged arteries of Britain's moribund political establishment.

- Leo McKinstry

The people have spoken and their verdict is a brutal rejection of the traditional duopoly that has run our country for the last century.

As the votes continue to be counted, it’s clear that the Tories have taken a real hammering, yet Labour, bruised and unpopular, have been unable to capitalise on their opponents' chronic weakness.

Labour’s failure has opened the way to the remarkable advance by Nigel Farage’s Reform party, which now looks more like an alternative government rather than a pro-test movement. The key to Reform’s surge is in the public’s profound disillusion with Labour and the Tories’ misgoverning of Britain in recent decades.

Mediocrity, short-termism and incompetence are their hallmarks. Soaring debt, creaking public services and rising taxation are their accomplishments.

Britain’s leaders used to be renowned for their pragmatism, but today they seem in thrall to progressive fads such as the push for net zero carbon emissions, which has not only undermined the reliability of the grid but has also led to the highest electricity prices in the world. Even Sir Tony Blair, the arch left-wing moderniser, declared this week that Britain’s green strategy is “irrational, hysterical and doomed to failure”.