The US and Britain have been driven into gridlock by obstinate, inadequate leaders

Trump and May equate bending to breaking – and seem bent upon breaking their countries as a result

Donald Trump and Theresa May wouldn’t appear to have much in common beyond the fact that both of them have brought the governments of their respective countries to a juddering halt.

The former is a vainglorious reality TV star who craves celebrity and attention in the same way that drug addicts crave their next hit, and is a creation of the media as much as anything else.

The latter is a provincial bigot, better suited to running a county council than a country, and who finds herself in the position she’s in partly because she ran from the cameras whenever they appeared during a spectacularly botched election campaign.

What they both possess, however, is more obduracy than you’d find in a pair of mules that have just settled down for a spot of sunbathing in the middle of a country road. They are steeped in the sort of tribalism that even the fans at the opposing ends of an old firm derby might think of as a little too much.

Their countries are suffering greatly as a result.

America’s government remains shuttered to the extent that some federal employees have been left in need of food aid.

Britain is, meanwhile, careering towards an outcome its more sensible ministers, and a large majority of MPs, recognise as disastrous for the country, its economy, and, indeed, for the continued existence of the union of nations that make it up. A myriad of problems aren’t even being discussed, much less addressed.

In neither case was this inevitable and leaders who put their countries first would long ago have found ways to escape these dead ends.

Flexibility is an underrated virtue in politicians. The electorates of the US and the UK need to learn that while slipperiness in politicians can be infuriating, it’s also very necessary.

The teaching they’re being exposed to is tip top. Their two leaders have so little about them that they equate bending to breaking, and seem bent upon breaking their countries as a result, Trump over his stupid wall and May over her stupid Brexit.

Only their own parties can realistically apply the necessary sticking plaster. But will they? Both were once mainstream centre-right movements that have in recent times cravenly surrendered to bellicose nationalists. Their leaderships have mostly chosen to try and appease rather than confront this cancerous growth.

In the case of the Republican party, Trump is the tumour. May, by contrast, set out to give in to the one that has grown in her party. But increasingly she too has come to personify the sickness in the Tory party.

There has been scant sign that either is willing to go through chemotherapy, for all that they and their countries desperately need someone to administer it.

Happily for the free world, the US will get the chance to surgically remove Trump in a couple of years. If the people step up to the plate, the Republicans could be in trouble. They’ve been able to deflect a demographic tide chiefly by means of voter suppression, but for how long can that last?

The Conservatives face a very similar situation. And they too have opted to suppress a democratic Final Say vote rather than allowing it in response. They too are playing a dangerous game with their indulgence of the nostalgic colonialists who have been pushing May towards a cliff edge. But their country is also changing.

Good riddance to them both, you may feel, if that’s where this ends. I know I do. It’s high time that the people on both sides of the pond were rid of their malign incompetence, with apologies to the New York Times which used that memorable phrase to describe the entirety of the British ruling class, not without justification. It fits Trump’s Republicans as well as May’s Tories well enough.

But the short-term price is too high.

For the sake of their countries the centre right needs to take back control (sorry) from the nationalists, and that means acting against the mules that sit in the middle of the road, or the highway.

We’ll soon find out if they are willing to do that.