Now the Tories are the party with the ありふれた touch: DOMINIC SANDBROOK says there is a vacuum at the heart of British politics where the 労働 Party used to be

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For the past few years, most of us have known that the 労働 leadership lived on a different 惑星.?

But it was not until yesterday morning, a few hours after the shocking results from Copeland and Stoke Central had rolled in, that I realised they 現実に 住むd a 平行の universe.

In the real world, Thursday night’s results were one of the greatest humiliations in 労働’s long history.?

The last time Copeland returned a 保守的な MP was in 1931. For the 政府 to 勝利，勝つ here was almost 信じられない

対立s almost always pile up 投票（する）s in 中央の-称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 補欠選挙s. 政府s never 勝利，勝つ them.

Yet in Stoke Central, a 安全な 労働 seat ever since its 創造, the party 投票d より小数の 投票（する）s than the 保守的なs and Ukip 連合させるd, and saw its 全体にわたる 株 現実に 減少（する） by 2 per cent.?

As for Copeland, the 保守的な victory was such a shock it is 事実上 off the 規模.

?To put it into some sort of 状況, the last time a sitting 政府 overturned a decent 対立 大多数 at a 補欠選挙, without some sort of defection or 分裂（する） or 地元の peculiarity, was in 1878

A 大部分は working-class seat on the remote north-western 辛勝する／優位 of England, Copeland is as 労働 as they come.?

The last time it returned a 保守的な MP was in 1931. For the 政府 to 勝利，勝つ here was almost 信じられない.

To put it into some sort of 状況, the last time a sitting 政府 overturned a decent 対立 大多数 at a 補欠選挙, without some sort of defection or 分裂（する） or 地元の peculiarity, was in 1878, when Benjamin Disraeli’s 保守的なs won in Worcester, overturning a large 自由主義の 大多数 of nearly 8 パーセント.

支援する then, of course, the 労働 Party did not even 存在する. And if Copeland’s result is repeated 全国的な, it may not 存在する in the 未来.

So what did the 労働 leadership and their 同盟（する）s make of all this? Funny that you should ask. In his 圧力（をかける） 会議／協議会 yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn banged on about Stoke as though Copeland did not even 存在する, while his アイルランド共和国軍-supporting 影をつくる／尾行する （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 John McDonnell （人命などを）奪う，主張するd it was all Tony Blair’s fault.

Astonishingly, though, their courtiers seemed in tremendous spirits. ‘To 押し進める the Tories to within 2,000 投票（する）s [in Copeland],’ said Mr Corbyn’s political handmaiden Cat Smith, ‘is an incredible 業績／成就.’

‘The Torie s may have taken Copeland,’ said a 声明 for the プロの／賛成の-Corbyn 圧力団体 勢い, ‘but we’ve seen everything we need to 勝利，勝つ across the country 権利 here in Stoke these last few weeks.’

As for Mr Corbyn himself, comfortably the worst major party leader in modern times, I have become a little 疲れた／うんざりした of 令状ing about him

I don’t know what world these characters 住む, but unless they are away with the fairies, which is, I 譲歩する, perfectly possible, they cannot 本気で believe that Thursday night was anything other than an utter 不名誉.

As for Mr Corbyn himself, comfortably the worst major party leader in modern times, I have become a little 疲れた／うんざりした of 令状ing about him.?

He is so inept, so stupid, so na?ve, extreme and out of touch, that there is no longer really anything to say. It is getting to the 行う／開催する／段階 where I feel almost sorry for him.

What the results from Stoke and Copeland show, though, is that 労働’s problems go far deeper than Mr Corbyn.?

罠にかける in a 泡 of smug 主要都市の self-regard, utterly out of touch with its own 投票者s, the party has been haemorrhaging working-class support for years.

Indeed, Copeland 示唆するs that 労働’s 核心 working-class 投票（する） is 女性 than at any time in the party’s 117-year history. The truth, therefore, is that the party does not just need to get rid of Mr Corbyn. It also needs t o get rid of all those deluded enough to 投票（する） for him.

It wasn’t really Mr Corbyn, after all, who lost Copeland. It was all those self-indulgent, second-率 university lecturers, schoolteachers and social 労働者s who put him there. As a former academic, I know the type only too 井戸／弁護士席.

By and large, the Corbynistas have three distinguishing features. They know nothing about the 労働 Party, they know nothing about politics and they know nothing about Britain.

In Stoke Central, a 安全な 労働 seat ever since its 創造, the party 投票d より小数の 投票（する）s than the 保守的なs and Ukip 連合させるd, and saw its 全体にわたる 株 現実に 減少（する） by 2 per cent

They love to 非難する Tony Blair ? who, for all his faults, won three 選挙s ? as a 反逆者. But to identify 労働’s real 反逆者s, the betrayers of the people the party 趣旨s to 代表する, they should take a look in the mirror.

In the 合間, the 保守的なs must think themselves in political nirvana. Theresa May was 報道によれば woken by text to tell her the good news about Copeland, and I imagine she can rarely have been so pleased to be roused from her slumbers.

She is probably tired of 存在 compared with Margaret Thatcher, but in one 決定的な 尊敬（する）・点 the 平行の is irresistible. What distinguished Mrs Thatcher was her 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の abil ity to reach out to aspirational working-class 投票者s, the famous ‘C2s’ of political jargon.

With his 空気／公表する of Old Etonian 特権, David Cameron could never repeat the trick. But by 強調ing her moral 保守主義, 控訴，上告ing to 投票者s’ patriotism and talking so 率直に about aspiration and social 司法（官）, the vicar’s daughter Mrs May has carried her party’s 旗 into areas that have not 投票（する）d 保守的な for １０年間s.

In particular, her Brexit 戦略 is 明確に doing her a lot of good. 調査するs show that the Tory lead の中で the C2s is higher than at any time since the 1980s, while 労働’s lead の中で the unskilled working class ? the 絶対の 核心 of the 労働 投票（する）, unless you count university ありふれた rooms ? is 負かす／撃墜する to just one 百分率 point.

In the 合間, the 保守的なs must think themselves in political nirvana. Theresa May was 報道によれば woken by text to tell her the good news about Copeland, and I imagine she can rarely have been so pleased to be roused from her slumbers

These are 素晴らしい 人物／姿／数字s. And my guess is that if Ukip continues to implode ? for if it cannot 勝利，勝つ in Stoke, the city with the highest 割合 of Leave 投票者s, then where on earth can it 勝利，勝つ? ? then Mrs May could hoover up working-class 投票（する）s in 2020. If that transpires, 広大な 列s of the Midlands and perhaps even the North will turn into 保守的な 要塞／本拠地s.

There is, however, an obvious caveat. With 労働 in such humiliating 混乱, the 総理大臣 now has no 効果的な 対立.

But far from 残り／休憩（する）ing on her laurels, she should use her 素晴らしい vindication in Copeland to 刺激（する） her to greater 成果／努力s. There is a vacuum at the heart of British politics where the 労働 Party used to be. If she is canny, Mrs May should 捜し出す to fill it.

With her work ethic and moral 真面目さ, she seems 井戸／弁護士席 placed to 控訴，上告 to 投票者s who have never 投票（する）d Tory in the past ? and if she makes a success of Brexit, she could define the course of our political life for the next 世代.

Most people like their 政治家，政治屋s to be 愛国的な. They want them to believe in Britain, to be serious, competent and pragmatic

The biggest lesson of all this, though, is very （疑いを）晴らす. For all the 激流s of 署名／調印する 注ぐd out by historians and commentators like me, British politics is really a very simple 商売／仕事.

Most people, in Copeland, Stoke or somewhere else, whether they are natural Tories or dyed-in-the wool 労働, are pretty 保守的な. They like their 政治家，政治屋s to be 愛国的な. They want them to believe in Britain, to be serious, competent and pragmatic.

By contrast, they don’t want them to talk about scrapping our 核の deterrent, or introducing a 国家の 行う cap for high earners. They don’t want them to grovel to Vladimir Putin, to fawn over Fidel Castro or to talk about copying the 社会主義者 basket 事例／患者 that is Venezuela. And they certainly don’t want them to be unpatriotic, na?ve, extreme and inept.

The most successful 選挙-勝利者s of the past century ? the 保守的なs’ Stanley Baldwin and Margaret Thatcher, say, or 労働’s Clement Attlee and Tony Blair ? knew all this perfectly 井戸／弁護士席. Mrs May seems to know it, too.

To Corbyn and his 支持者s, however, it appears a 完全にする mystery. And when you get 負かす／撃墜する to it, that is all you need to know about 労働’s utter humiliation.