Voters at this week’s by-election in Old Bexley and Sidcup are angry with the Prime Minister, but do not appear to have settled on anyone better.
Army officers, political advisers, businesspeople, a London Assembly Member and – unusually – a sitting MP are among the latest crop of finalists.
It is a relic of an out-of-date fashion for the big and artificial rather than the small, local and rooted.