Much focus is now on the final stages in the selection of the presidential candidates by the two main political parties in the United States. On 18 July the Republicans will gather in Cleveland to select their candidate; a week later the Democrats meet for their national convention in Philadelphia.

Barring a fall at one of the final fences, it is likely the Democrats will select Hillary Clinton. The Republican race, on the other hand, may yet throw up some surprises. The first is that despite the media hype surrounding Donald Trump, he is still a long way off the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination. At the start of this week, he had, according to The New York Times, 673 delegates in the bag and Ted Cruz had 410. He still has to fight some of the biggest primaries, among them California and New York.

Then there is the much talked about Republican establishment in Washington trying to put together a rescue mission with an alternative candidate. Trump has neutered some of their power by tapping into a wave of anti-politician and Washington sentiment in the wider US electorate. The difficulty for the Republican establishment is how they could run the primaries to select a candidate – and then set aside the result?