LET’S reboot and see how the election resets itself as life begins to restart after the week’s appalling events.

At the start of the week, which now seems like a very different age, Theresa May’s team was troubled. Their manifesto was a slipshod wishlist which reminded us that Mrs May is a pragmatic politician rather than one who is driven by deeply held beliefs.

Just like the Budget scramble over National Insurance Contributions, so she led a rapid reconfiguration over the “dementia tax”. Rather than stand her ground because she believed it to be right, she searched for territory which would appeal to everyone.

Then came the removal of winter fuel payments.

It is surely right that this £300 state hand-out should not go to multi-millionaires, but Mrs May arrogantly said that voters would know at what level the payment would stop until after the election. It was like a car salesman refusing to reveal how many wheels the car would have on it until the purchaser had handed over the money.

To make matters worse, in Scotland the payment will not be removed because it is colder up there. Therefore pensioners in the North-East, where the climate is more Scottish than it is southern English, are going to be left out in the cold.

In trying to explain this away, Mrs May no longer looked strong, stable and serene. She looked flustered.

Yet the reboot has enabled her to regain her poise. She has looked in control as the appalling events have unfolded – and so far, nothing has been laid at her door from her time as Home Secretary.

But the reboot doesn’t reset anything for Labour – or rather Labours, because there are two Labour parties in this election.

Every campaigner from every party who has been on the doorstep tells me that Jeremy Corbyn comes up time and again as the reason behind Labour’s decline. I heard of an octogenarian who’d voted Labour all his life and was in tears when he told the candidate that the leader would prevent him from doing so this time.

Whereas Conservative candidates locally are desperate to be seen with their leader, many of our Labour candidates are trying to avoid any contact with theirs – in fact, some are even portraying themselves as being from a new, non-Corbyn Labour party.

Mr Corbyn’s old style manifesto attempts to put New Labour back in the bottle. Tony Blair’s defining moment was scrapping the party’s commitment to nationalisation by removing Clause IV of its constitution in 1995; Mr Corbyn’s manifesto commits the party to renationalising railways, energy companies, water companies and the Royal Mail. It is very popular with his supporters.

No reboot can reset this divide. In fact, not even turning it off and starting again can reconcile these differences – they now seem hardwired.

THE Manchester atrocity saw Andy Burnham seize the role of figurehead of the city.

He is the mayor of the Great Manchester Combined Authority, one of six such mayors across the country elected to the new posts only on May 5. He doubles as the Police and Crime Commissioner, which gives him extra clout, but should, say, Darlington or Hartlepool be thrust into the national spotlight, would it be the new Tees Valley Mayor who speaks up?