Adam Boulton, editor at large

Pity the poor prime minister, trying to get her cabinet colleagues to agree the Brexit white paper at next week's two-day meeting at Chequers.

Collective cabinet responsibility is a thing of the past and so it seems is the convention - dating back to Victorian times and the first Duke of Wellington - that ministers who disagree in public with key government policies are sacked or resign from office.

These days, political veterans shake their heads muttering "unprecedented" and "never seen anything like it" as they survey the rampant disunity and indiscipline in the ranks of senior ministers - not that the Labour party in opposition is any more united.

Image: Theresa May is consistently undermined by her cabinet

If we haven't seen anything like this before - or at any rate for a very long time - it's worth asking why this is happening and whether such disarray among our lawmakers matters to us.


Here's a short but by no means exhaustive list of recent splits and acts of disloyalty at the top of the Conservative Party.

Firstly, a compulsory three-line whip was imposed on Tory MPs to vote for the expansion of Heathrow. Observing convention, the junior minister Greg Hands resigned his government job to oppose the plan.

Sick and heavily pregnant MPs were forced to attend and troop through the lobbies in person, but two of the most senior holders of the great offices of state, the foreign secretary and the chancellor, both of whom happen to represent constituencies near the airport, were allowed to absent themselves abroad.

Johnson dodges Heathrow bulldozer questions

Meanwhile, at least two senior spending ministers have been demanding extra cash from the treasury without reference to the prime minister, the chancellor, or the government's fiscal plans.

After a long media campaign, Jeremy Hunt appears to have got the extra cash he wants for the NHS, and now Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is bombastically threatening to bring Mrs May down unless she accedes to his demands.

Brexit Secretary David Davis has let it be known he would resign unless the government insisted on some largely meaningless loose language about what would happen if his talks with the EU fail.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid earmarked extra funding for the police without consulting the chancellor and is openly defying the prime minister's "hostile" hard line on illegal immigrants and student visitors.

Image: Brexit Secretary David Davis has threatened to resign

Chief Secretary Lis Truss hit back at her squabbling colleagues in a speech packed with mockery, especially of Michael Gove, which is only likely to exacerbate divisions.

Mr Gove himself is no slouch explaining what the prime minister thinks without bothering to check with her first.

And then there's Boris Johnson, taking a private jet to Afghanistan at the taxpayers' expense to get round his commitment to oppose airport expansion.

More substantively he has shocked diplomats, senior business people and even his own so-called "party of business" by swearing "f*** business" if Britain's wealth creators dare to question his vision of Brexit.

Image: Sajid Javid has earmarked more funding for the police without consulting the chancellor

At time of writing, Mr Johnson and all of the above are still in post (except for the right honourable Mr Hands).

Unlike Mrs May, Jeremy Corbyn has sacked frontbenchers who disobey his orders, but that doesn't mean the Labour Party is united.

Far from it. Labour MPs have defied Mr Corbyn's orders on a historic scale of late.

A record-breaking 90 out of a total 258 MPs ignored his instructions to abstain on the EU Withdrawal Bill. In a "free vote", more Labour MPs backed the third runway at Heathrow than followed Mr Corbyn in opposing it.

Pro-EU protesters hold banner at Labour Live

Self-evidently, both main parties are profoundly split. David Cameron's contortions to keep the Conservative Party united on Europe have only aggregated its splits.

On the opposition side, the overwhelming majority of Labour MPs wanted to stay in the EU, but are led by a leader who is a lifelong Eurosceptic.

There is also a leadership crisis on both sides.

Few expect either Mr Corbyn or Mrs May to lead their party into the next general election, due in 2022.

Image: Mrs May is unlikely to lead the Conservatives into a general election in 2022

This in turn encourages the ambitious to raise their own profiles at the expense of the incumbent.

A majority of Labour MPs have called for Mr Corbyn to go, and as someone who rebelled against the party whip thousands of times before becoming leader, his demands for loyalty ring hollow.

Similarly, it is a matter of record that Mrs May personally backed remain in the referendum, contrary to her present policy, making it difficult for anyone at Westminster to trust her.

There are also doubts about the quality of today's political leaders.

Image: Jeremy Corbyn is regularly opposed by his own MPs

Intense media scrutiny may have played a part in this, and talented young people must wonder if they would have a happier, freer and more fulfilling life away from politics.

It means the field is left open to chancers and the shameless.

Boris Johnson, who as a journalist was sacked twice from prestigious publications for lying, is certainly a contrast to Peter Carrington, who resigned as foreign secretary on principle when the Falkland Islands were invaded in 1982.

Nor do either Mr Corbyn or Mrs May seem entirely honest in reconciling their personal beliefs with the policies they advocate on behalf of their parties.

Huge protest on EU vote anniversary

We don't know if Mr Corbyn wants to run the country for the benefit of the people or if - following the Marxist analysis he avows - he believes bringing about the collapse of capitalism would be the best way to achieve it.

Mrs May likes to lead from behind - that was what got her the job in first place. Her policy only emerges through attrition after the warring factions in her party have fought it out.

The upcoming Chequers summit is just the latest exercise for this technique.

The truth is that the electorate is just as irreconcilably divided as its politicians. The shared political assumptions which grew out of the Second World War seem worn out or irrelevant to many.

Nations have got through such periods of uncertainty in the past. Muddling along and squabbling may actually be the best option if nobody has a convincingly better idea.

But one day we will need united and principled leadership if we are to get over our political nervous breakdown.

Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Sky News editors and correspondents, published every morning.

Previously on Sky Views: Ian King - It's wrong to mock Germany for World Cup failure