Voices: The ‘Dysfunctional Unionist Party’ is in trouble again

If you want an example of the caprice of politics, go back four years to when Keir Starmer was poised to take over the leadership of a Labour Party that was 26 points behind in the opinion polls.

Or go back five years this week to when Michael Gove was briefly the betting favourite to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and therefore prime minister.

Or that same week, and the two years before it, when the was in a quasi-coalition government with Theresa May, able to extract billions of pounds for public services in.