Does anyone actually want to win the next election?

A battle lost is worse than a battle won and there are fewer Pyrrhic victories in politics than you think. One of the staples of pre-election punditry, however, is that someone will always pipe up with the suggestion This is a Good Election to Lose. It is almost always bunk. Not least because, with the notable exception of the Liberal Democrats, major political parties are in the business of acquiring, then exercising, power. Shorn of that they lose their point.

So there’s that. Nevertheless if you suspect there might be a but lurking a couple of lines in the future your premonition would, in this instance, be correct.

But this might actually be a rare exception to the general rule. This could be an election it really is better to lose than to win. Whichever party forms or leads the next government is likely to be severely discredited by the end of their time in office.