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If you were in the slightest doubt that the political landscape has changed irrevocably and the two 'heritage parties' (Conservative and Labour) are facing the type of wipe-out from which they would never recover, just look at the last seven days.

It started precisely a week ago with Labour's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) deciding by eight votes to one to block Andy Burnham from standing in this month's crucial Gorton and Denton by-election. The official reason given was he is currently serving as the Mayor of Greater Manchester, and it would be both wrong and costly to force the patch - roughly the size of nearly 30 constituencies - to hold a fresh mayoral election.

That sounds about as valid as Sir Keir Starmer's definition of a woman, and everyone can see the reality is Starmer and the Labour elite, who took just 45 minutes to reject Burnham as a candidate, are running scared of the self-styled King of the North. As Labour's popularity continues to plummet, an increasing number of the party's MPs see Burnham as the only saviour. Although hoping that a change of the name on the door at Number 10 will solve everything is surely naïve at best?

But in blocking Burnham, Keir and his conniving crew have placed themselves effectively in double-jeopardy. They are already nervously surveying the upcoming local elections in May as poll after poll says they are in for a real hammering.

Now they've managed to double their chances of facing a full-on rebellion, as defeat in the safe Labour seat being contested (majority 13,413) will also stoke the fires of dissent and likely lead to a bid to topple Starmer. Intriguingly, if he were to be forced to quit, it would mean five of the last six PMs have been dumped out of office between elections. Few things highlight the state of political flux better than that.

Meanwhile, another week and another defection to Reform UK from the higher ranks of the Conservative Party: this time former Home Secretary Suella Braverman. While she might have likened leaving the party in which she has been an MP for more than two decades to "a divorce," the picture above, resembling a cloying Mills & Boon cover illustration, seemed to display she was close to swooning at the side of her new political partner.

The key accusation that Reform used to face was a valid one, namely where was the political heft to move from being a guerilla-style party of insurgence to one that could actually form a government?

Now bristling with ex-cabinet ministers including a former chancellor and home secretary, that charge can be rebuffed.

The critics who justly claim Reform UK risks becoming 'Conservatives 2.0' should bear in mind one rather salient fact: for virtually 200 years the Tories have been the most successful democratic political party on the planet, so aping that might not be such a bad thing after all!

As Reform continues to grow on the Right, the Green Party - in spite of being led by someone who once claimed to be able to increase the size of women's breasts using the power of his mind - captures much of the traditional Left of British politics. All of which leaves the two parties that have enjoyed almost untrammelled power for countless decades in an increasingly uncomfortably squeezed middle.