The rules still exist. They just don't seem to apply to anyone in particular anymore. Momentum doesn't convert, scandals don't stick, victories come with invoices attached, and the side doors are all unlocked. It's not that the system is broken—it's that everyone has quietly learned to use the secret way out. Reform UK swept England's local elections, humiliating both Labour and the Conservatives and pointing to the possibility that its support is no longer too "wide but shallow" to make a