predecessor

Cameron's Labour predecessors Tony Blair and Gordon Brown dodged the political bullet of being seen to give in to the court.

Like his predecessors, Lecornu was unable to push through a budget to bring down the government's deficit and tackle public debt.

He claimed the current Taoiseach Micheál Martin was not prepared to push forward with that work until there was "total reconciliation" across the island - something which his predecessor said may never be possible.

The big challenge facing Lecornu and his two predecessors has been how to tackle France's crippling national debt and get over the ideological divisions between the centre-ground parties who could be part of a government.

It’s a decision that was partly spiritual: when the world feels unmoored, it seemed perhaps worth remembering that our predecessors relied on the seasons as enveloping promises of change.