Outside the Houses of Parliament in London stands a small patch of grass known as College Green, flanked with wooden benches and hire bicycles. Usually, it lies empty.

But the intensity of British politics can be measured by the number of camera crews filming interviews there. Spot five or more cameras, and you can be assured a big news story has broken. This week, the Green was roped off from the general public, tall gazebos sprang up to shield cameras from the rain, and over a hundred politicians, journalists, and technicians barked frantically into microphones and camera lenses as people ran around in the background, herding famous figures from one cluster to the next.

The level of agitation exceeds even that which followed last year’s surprise announcement of the general election. After two years of dithering, Prime Minister Theresa May announced she had reached an agreement with the European Union and the Irish government on how the United Kingdom would leave the European Union. The response was almost univocal fury, from her own party and all opposition parties.