Picture the scene. It’s December in Britain and bad weather is causing a series of crises in an already under-pressure transport system. A government minister comes under fire for not cutting short a family holiday quickly enough to return to the UK to deal with the problems, prompting some observers to believe this is a government that knows it will be out of power soon.
You might think this is a prediction about this winter, but it was actually December 2009. And six months later, Gordon Brown’s government was indeed out of power.
Between crisis after crisis, amid strikes and transport chaos and struggles with the health system, politics watchers will be looking for signs of something else this year. Is this a government in which every member is fighting for its political life? Or have some of them decided that, with their poll numbers so horrific, there is no point and they’ve already lost the next general election.
