National interest: What does the word politicians love to use really mean?

Since June 24 2016 the nation has been at loggerheads trying to define what it wants

At a time of national crisis, it is perhaps unsurprising to hear appeals to the national interest. Theresa May has called on it innumerable times when she has asked MPs to back her Brexit deal. Jeremy Corbyn uses the same concept to implore May to move aside and call a general election.

But times of crisis are in large part about the debasement of political norms and social mores. Old patterns and established behaviours crack. As with practice, so with thinking: concepts become twisted, bent out of shape.

That, though, makes it all the more important