Trust the voters

 Voters do not need to be told how to get rid of an odious government. By-elections this week, up and down England, have demonstrated that they will support the candidate, be they Labour, Liberal Democrat  or even Green, most likely to unseat a Conservative. Conservative Campaign Headquarters (formerly Central Office) takes note of local election results as well as their own private opinion research, so will surely shortly be handing Boris Johnson the proverbial revolver and injunction to do the right thing. One trusts that, with possibly three years to go before the next general election, senior figures in the party will advise a return to traditional Conservative values of probity and financial responsibility. The new PM must also address the social concerns with which the Johnson cabal was out of touch right from the date of its accession.

So pre-election pacts with other parties are not needed. Indeed, they may even be counter-productive as the Liberal Democrat leadership's abortive deal with the Green Party in 2019 proved.