THE Tory party chose a new leader this week. He was elected by its MPs alone. No one else was asked. A few weeks ago, he was rejected by the same MPs. Instead, they chose someone who was outlasted by a lettuce. Sadly, for the rest of us, he also became prime minister. An act that is an affront to decent standards of democracy.

And the results have been inevitable. So far Rishi Sunak’s government of “professionalism and accountability” has sacked the guy who ended the barristers strike – Brandon Lewis – and replaced him with the person who caused it – Dominic Raab.

The new PM also promises “integrity” and then appoints the disgraced former incumbent, Suella Braverman, to the Home Office. You may recall that she was fired from that very role some days ago for breaking the rules. It is reported that Jake Berry, who quit as Conservative Party chair on Tuesday, said Braverman was involved in “multiple” breaches of the ministerial code. One was “really serious” and related to cybersecurity.

She will be responsible for enforcing the law.

Such has been the outrage at her appointment that there are rumours that she will soon be sacked. So, Suella Braverman might then become the shortest-serving Home Secretary in British history, beating Suella Braverman’s record.

READ MORE: Mike Small: Joke’s on us as Thick Lizzie’s exit sees the return of Cruel Sue

The Labour party enjoys a huge lead in the polls. And what does it want to do if elected? Its leader, Keir Starmer, plans to make “Brexit work”. He has a greater chance of becoming Miss World. Apologists say this policy will not be pursued once Labour is in office. But that just adds to the now routine problem of politicians saying one thing and then doing the other.

This begs the obvious question of how all this could happen in a civilised country. The short answer is that it shouldn’t. The vast majority of countries have a written constitution that requires the approval of the electorate before gaining power over them.

The ramshackle UK constitution has no such safeguards. It insists that sovereignty lies with Westminster, which makes the laws and enforces them.

It is no surprise then that one UK pollster found that the terms most voters associated with the British government were “shambles” and “incompetent”.

This column has warned before that the UK faces collapse sooner rather than later. Now others are coming around to the same view. The Atlantic magazine quotes economic analyst Matt Klein, who says that if you take out Greater London – the prosperity of which depends to an uncomfortable degree on a willingness to provide services to oligarchs from the Middle East and the former Soviet Union – the UK is one of the poorest countries in western Europe.

Derek Thompson of the Atlantic says that Britain has become “bitter, flailing and nonsensical”. He adds: “The UK is now an object lesson for other countries dealing with the dark triad of deindustrialisation, degrowth and denigration of foreigners.”

Britain’s political meltdown is a result of a constitutional meltdown, says Mark Dawson, professor of European law and governance at the Hertie School in Berlin. He claims that “the current state of the UK’s constitutional system is unsustainable and increasingly unable to support the primary purpose of government – to actually deliver policy”.

He adds: “Absent from the UK system is the complex system of checks and balances found in other European countries.” And he has a special word for the UK Supreme Court. He says: “It is no constitutional court – it lacks the broad-based constitutional mandate to review legislation …. and does not enjoy supremacy in interpreting the rules of UK political life over Parliament itself.”

READ MORE: Top Tory attacks Trevor Noah after claims PM Rishi Sunak sparked racist backlash

Professor Dawson has special praise for the devolved Parliaments. He says the constraints on the devolved systems, far from being a barrier to effective government, actually help them to avoid the hubris and errors that plague Westminster.

He asserts: “The UK political system is rife with factionalism and dysfunction with political cooperation guided not by the national interest but rather by one party’s instinct for political survival. This club has plenty of gentlemen, but they are unfortunately not very gentlemanly.”

Professor Dawson adds: “The notion that voters can give one party a blank cheque to govern and then tell politicians to restrain and control themselves is reaping the opposite of what was supposed to deliver. [The result is] political chaos and an utter inability to focus on Britain’s eye-watering range of policy challenges. Constitutional reform is a matter of increasing political urgency.”

In short, Britain has an economic crisis, born of a political crisis, that stems from a constitutional crisis. Only through fixing the latter does it have any hope of saving itself.

LibDems for Independence are guests on the TNT show on Wednesday.

Join us at 7pm on IndyLive