General election 2019: Can these leaders answer their own questions?

On almost any measure, we face a huge set of decisions.

Should we leave the EU next month, or vote on it again?

Do we set on a path that would lead steadily to another decision on the make up of the UK?

Do we choose a much bigger state, or a revised version of the status quo with a slight easing up on the public spending squeeze that came after crash?

Those are fundamental questions about our place in the world, the very nature of the relationship between government and its people.

And voters are all too aware of the scale of the choice before them.

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But there is exhaustion and frustration with the political class, and the two main leaders that are asking them to choose.

Both of the men who want to take office can reach parts of their parties other can't in the same way. But they are both famously flawed too.

'Make or break moment'

For Boris Johnson, he has long enthused a certain strand of Tory voter, and is one of the few politicians, like it or not, who is impossible to ignore.

For him, this election is the ultimate make or break political moment, not just in terms of the last few months, but in terms of recent political history.

One of his old friends says: "Boris Johnson has been the most famous politician in the country for more than a decade.

"His entire adult life has been defined by others as all about getting to No 10. He did make it - and not at a time or in circumstances he ever imagined or wished.

"Lose and he will be pilloried. He will never be able to prove the critics wrong or be the leader he desperately wants to be."

'A huge chance'

On the other side, this is a massive moment and a huge chance, not just for Jeremy Corbyn himself, but for his ardent backers.

For those on the left of the Labour Party who fought off critics from the moment he was chosen by members, after years when his grouping had been in the wilderness, the stakes are enormous too.

For Labour supporters who are not in that group, however, or for Conservatives who are not ardent Brexiteers, this whole campaign has been a strange and discombobulating experience, almost as if they can't feel the ground beneath their feet.

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn are competing for the keys to No 10

The main messages of the leaders are clear. But beyond two separate ardent cores, they can struggle to convince even everyone on their own side.

The wider public's mantra is not "get Brexit done" or "it's time for real change", but perhaps instead "we're not convinced by any of you".

But this election has not been an exercise in enthusiasm - there is a sense that the politicians available may not be the ones to answer convincingly the questions they have set.