With its usual infallible sense of the mood in the country, and on the eve of a wipeout in the local elections, Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) has threatened to expel anyone who votes for another party.

“All members, including elected representatives, are expected to fully support the party in all elections,” it warned. “Campaigning for or endorsement of any other political party is incompatible with membership of the party… The board will not hesitate to enforce these rules.”

What a cheek, eh? They’ve got a prime minister who’s Vince Cable in drag making nice with a Marxist, yet they can’t manage to expel her. It’s a bit rich to start throwing out actual Tories who, in their anger and despair, plan to vote for a new party which came into being specifically to honour a promise made in the Conservative Party manifesto.

I reckon CCHQ are going to be expelling an awful lot of people. The desperate attempt to make tomorrow’s local elections about “Bins, Not Brexit” has backfired; the handling of both is rubbish, they create an awful stink and still nobody manages to deliver them to the right place.

One furious friend says she point-blank refuses to vote for her excellent Conservative councillor. Fair enough, but the councillor is her husband. Even poor Peter says he will vote for the Brexit Pary in the European elections.