The Conservatives’ next election campaign will be run by Lynton Crosby, an Australian whose success has earned him the title ‘The Wizard of Oz’. On examining L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s book, the nickname seems more pertinent than you might imagine.

Lynton Crosby’s skill, according to Andrew Gilligan in the Telegraph, is not so much a genius for strategy, but the ability to ‘instil direction and confidence’.