Politics

Even when the Conservatives slumped to a historic defeat at the general election, few would have thought that one of the world's oldest political parties would soon be overtaken in the polls by a young pretender on the radical right.

It's a windy March morning and I'm standing in the forecourt of a small service station that has been re-dressed in Reform teal.

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A month into the Iran war and the prime minister, on a visit to Finland with allies in the Joint Expeditionary Forces military coalition this week, left me in no doubt that he believes our lives, our country and the way we do things, is about to profoundly change.

Cards on the table, when I first read a story heavily suggesting the theft of Morgan McSweeney's mobile phone was somehow connected to requests for messages about Lord Mandelson, I thought to myself: that is an absurd conspiracy theory.