Party conferences almost always accentuate the differences between us all. Not surprisingly the various political tribes try to emphasise why they are different from the other parties; why their policy ideas and proposals would produce some sort of nirvana in our lives; and why the policies of the other lot would spell ruin and despair. Nuance, complexity, subtlety go out of the window.

But there is more at the moment, for the parties themselves are pretty divided and not afraid to show it. The Conservative Party recently evicted 21 of its MPs, some of whom had been major Cabinet figures – deciding on our taxes and the way our prisons work – only a few weeks earlier.