Is the Prime Minister moving inexorably towards breaking point? She remains firmly committed to her controversial Chequers proposals for Brexit, while the number of Tories – including some ministers – are calling on her to abandon her plan.

It is like the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object – a political explosion is now beginning to look inevitable, with all the dire consequences that could generate.

On top of all that, a growing number of Tories are demanding a vote of confidence in her leadership – only a handful short of the number required to force such a vote. To make matters even worse, David Davis, who resigned as Brexit Secretary over this very issue, is effectively calling for a mutiny of those Cabinet ministers who do not like her proposals.

Meanwhile, the irrepressible Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries has bluntly called on May to quit, and be replaced as interim leader by Davis.

The garrulous Dorries, who can never be accused of mincing her words, has already publicly made clear that she’d like to see Boris Johnson eventually take over her reins permanently.

All this leaves the Prime Minister in a ‘no win’ situation. If she backs off or waters down her Chequers proposals, it will be seen as an act of gross weakness, from which it would be difficult to recover.

Or if her Tory opponents get even nastier, then her entire political future could be in jeopardy.

The leading Tory Brexiteers challenging her policies, continue to insist that they are attacking those policies and not the individual.

But they must surely realise that if she is defeated on a vote of confidence, it could be curtains for her.

It all crucially depends on what Theresa May brings back from the critical EU summit later this week. That could, to mix the odd metaphor, either save her bacon or cook her goose.

nThe Prime Minister gleefully announced the end to austerity in her much-acclaimed Conservative Party conference speech. The next we heard were reports that judges are to be given a huge rise.

So she’s as good as her word?

Well I spoke to a district nurse the other day.

She said her pay rise amounted to around 30 pounds a month.

Not exactly the end of austerity for her.