People still think Boris Johnson is reasonable – as long as that myth is alive, he’ll sweep a general election

As campaigning heats up, going high while the prime minister goes low won’t be good enough. Remember, Berlusconi won three terms in office

Does anyone give a damn about democracy?

I’m not being rhetorical. Or even that facetious. I’m sure if Boris Johnson stood on a manifesto of, say, stripping under-50s of the vote, people would be cross. But when it comes to a general election and we are alone in our plywood booths, pencils hovering between the Devil candidate and the Deep Blue Sea party, how many of us are thinking: “Hmm. Well, the prorogation did set a dangerous precedent... on the other hand, the speaker did politicise the role... I mean this latest amendment, section 20a, paragraph IV, makes a valid point...”?

Clearly, plenty of people are worried about Grieve amendments, Cooper clauses, Boris babadooks and the whole noirish bookshelf of parliamentary shenanigans. There are people in the streets after all, talk of sending Johnson to HMP Belmarsh, lawyers and academics and experts experts experts going “won’t someone think of the constitution!” in the manner of the Rev Lovejoy’s wife in The Simpsons.