I have to admit, my interest in the current battle for the Conservative Party leadership is less than zero; this in spite of the fact that the consequences for us all are likely to be profound.
It’s not just that I know I have no influence over the outcome of this ‘election’ - to be decided by a hundred thousand or so people who are totally unrepresentative of the population as a whole.
It’s because neither candidate offers any hope that their government will get us out of the mess it has put us in.
And make no mistake, this will not be a new administration charting a fresh path for the UK. It will be the continuation of a government in power since 2010 which ushered in austerity, opened the door to Russian oligarchs, and which caved in to the rabid right on a referendum for exiting the EU.
For as long as I can remember, politicians have been accused of lying. In Thatcher’s day (no first name needed) it was called “being economical with the truth”. But this lot has taken lying to the level of high art.
The current crisis, they say, has nothing to do with them. When not blaming the Labour Party (which has been an irrelevance for the past 12 years), they pin the blame on the war in Ukraine, the impact of climate change and the effects of globalisation.
The reality is that the UK economy was tanking long before Vladimir Putin launched his war.
This is a home-grown disaster. The Conservatives are the authors of the UK’s misfortune, and both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak bear collective responsibility for creating the problems that face us.
Neither of them is the solution, whatever the middle-aged reactionaries who are the bedrock of the Conservatives might think.
It is impossible to avoid Brexit when considering Britain’s current plight – though BBC commentators will jump through hoops to avoid the B-word.
In their heart of hearts, everyone knows it was a fundamental economic error – an error recognised by the Scottish and Northern Ireland electorates who voted to remain part of Europe.
But that error was compounded by the fact that the Tories have been so distracted by Brexit that they have not been governing.
The energy crisis is in large part due to the fact that the UK neglected to protect its fuel security. By failing to invest in renewables, and energy storage, it left itself vulnerable to fluctuations in the world market.
Through privatisation and lax regulation, it shifted the sector’s focus from consumers to shareholders. How is it that the energy companies are reaping massive profits while consumers are crippled? Why is it that the French government has been able to control energy prices when the British have not?
And energy is just one area where the British government’s eye has been off the ball. Health, transport, education… the list goes on.
You would expect the opposition to mobilise, but not a bit of it. Keir Starmer, Labour’s useless leader, has thrown his lot in with the Brexiteers.
It does not matter to Labour that Brexit is the single biggest threat to the futures of those the party claims it represents.
Starmer will argue that his strategy will secure Labour’s return to government at the next general election. But he will not win an election as the continuity candidate for 12 years of Conservative maladministration.
The only opposition being supplied at Westminster comes from the Scottish and Irish nationalists. Colum Eastwood and Claire Hanna are two of the most effective voices on the backbenches, while the DUP sits in craven awe of the Conservatives.
The DUP’s only opposition is to the Northern Ireland Protocol, the one Tory treaty which protects the livelihoods of people living here. You couldn’t make it up.
Northern Ireland, it must be said, has not featured much in the leadership hustings. We know from the polls that English Conservatives would happily be rid of their troublesome Irish colony.
But there is evidence enough to fear that both Sunak and Truss would sacrifice the protocol to hold on to power. Both will use the EU as scapegoats for the failures of Brexit. Relations with Ireland will suffer.
Once again, we sit on the sidelines here with no ability to influence the outcome, but every certainty that we will lose out in the end. It’s no way to run a country. The sooner we are out of the Brexiteers’ clutches the better.
