It looks to any casual observer as if the Leadsom campaign for the Tory leadership has gone up in smoke. It is certainly on fire, but fires can be put out before too much damage is done, if there are other powerful forces in play. And there is one force which knows no party boundary, nor is it gripped by a common ideology, but it is spreading like a virus all across the world. It is a rebellion against the political establishment, globalisation, the accepted order of things, faces we know and are bored with; the list is almost endless and grows by the day.
We saw it first in a new anti-political left movement in Greece, but in France it is the Far right which is strident, led by Marine Le Pen. In America, more internally traumatised than for decades, it has given rise to Sanders and Trump. Here it gave us Corbyn, then it drove Brexit. It may now just give us Leadsom. Because May is very political establishment, very sure and very safe. Leadsom is none of those things. That is why the smart money may be on her.