The best outcome for the next election will not appear on the ballot paper, and is already the target of a hostile and escalating press campaign.It hardly needs to be said that a renewed mandate for Tory rule will be an obvious catastrophe for the country.No government in British democratic history can be considered such a devastating failure, whether on objective measures weak growth, an unprecedented squeeze in living standards, declining life expectancy and crisis-ridden public services or on its own terms.