Strong and stable leadership.
Isn't this what was offered at the end of the Roman Republic, leading to chaos, war and revolt? Not to mention murder. Which Tory is due to play which role? Ceasar? Brutus? Pompey? Marc Antony? May would of course like to mutate her Octavian into Augustus, an unchallenged strong ruler with subservient institutions.
But strong leaders? May having said she won't take part in any leaders debates, has now been joined by Corbyn. We have the measure of both of them, and it is small in the extreme.
This may be our chance to hear more from leaders who have shown their mettle but suffer from less airtime: Farron and Sturgeon in particular. Corbyn could have used the absence of May to play PM in waiting, instead, he may have to retire and lead another kind of PM, a post mortem on the subject of the death of the Labour Party.
Meanwhile Boris Johnson has assured us we are entering a new era of free trade deals (ignoring the 50+ and growing we are about to lose with harsh tory brexit), which will see us sell Haggis to the US and more whisky to India. Whoopee-do! That will make up nicely for the big chunk of lost GDP and falling disposable incomes, the brain drain and lost research opportunities, and the shrinking of the City of London, won't it? And we thought innovative jam and biscuits was already good.
But we should be worried about a government that is basing its election on the bullshit bingo trick of repeated keywords: 'strong' and 'stable'. Where is the plan?
Instead, the tories have resorted to waving their Johnson around, with cheap insults instead of facts, all rather reminiscent of the empty promises on the side of a little red bus, as much use in the end as a little red book, and as dangerous. So deluded is Johnson he continues to say we do send £350 Million a week, which even the BBC is reporting as wrong.