For years, the Tories have banked on impunity. Is their luck finally running out? | Andy Beckett

The party has clung to power by flouting political norms, but in the Cummings affair it faces an angry and contemptuous public

Will the Tories get away with it? In many ways, it’s been the central question in our politics since they squeaked back into government in 2010. Ever since they used the power vacuum after that year’s hung-parliament election to quickly cobble together a coalition with the Lib Dems, the Tories have been careering from one narrow scrape to the next.

Related: Tory anger at Dominic Cummings grows as 61 MPs defy Boris Johnson

One obvious advantage of answering only to “the people” is that – in theory, at least – it need happen only occasionally

Continue reading...