Yes, May is weak. But do her rivals have the nerve to wield the knife? | Martin Kettle

Despite the prime minister’s disastrous conference speech and vicious Tory infighting, a change of leadership is far from inevitable

A generation ago, the historian Anthony Seldon edited a book entitled How Tory Governments Fall. A sweeping survey, it stretched more than 200 years from Pitt the Younger to John Major. I bought the book at the Conservative conference in Bournemouth in 1996 but, confession time, barely opened it. With the Major government already on its death bed, its analysis seemed wholly superfluous to the times.

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The Tories are divided between those who think May is a goner, and those who think anything else would be worse

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