Brexit isn’t working but Tories of the Carlton Club can’t admit it

Amid the petrol crisis and labour shortages, hardline MPs continue to celebrate the damage Britain has inflicted on itself

In 1979 the Conservative party under Margaret Thatcher fought a successful election campaign with the slogan Labour isn't working". The campaign relied on a profusion of posters purporting to show a long line of unemployed people. It later turned out that this was not a real dole queue but a group of actors hired for the purpose.

This was characteristic of the loose attitude to the facts - what President Obama memorably dubbed truth decay" - that has become more prevalent in recent years.