The Tory leader should have supported Labour’s welfare bill – but such responsible behaviour would have defied the norms of British politics

They roared, they wept, they cheered. The audience gasped and the markets plunged. The critics loved it. Foreigners are famously envious of British politics played as fun.

I always thought it cruel to attack a person in tears. Tell that to the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch. Her savaging of the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, at prime minister’s questions (PMQs) on We...