Surveying the current British political scene brings to mind the title of a novel published 50 years ago by the famous storyteller Nicholas Monsarrat: "The Tribe that Lost its Head."
Monsarrat's story was about a small island off the coast of Africa where deep culture clashes, misunderstandings, leadership issues and tribal divisions led to dreadful outcomes. Today's story is also about an island, the much larger Great Britain, where the ruling tribe has indeed just lost its head and is searching for a new one.
The precise situation is as follows. Until recently, Theresa May was head of the Conservative Party, which in turn had a small and precarious majority in Parliament. This made it the ruling party and her, as its head, the prime minister.