The mood at the Tory conference is grim to funereal, and for good reason. They know they’re beat. There’s a sense that something has changed in British politics and we ain’t going back.

Labour is revived; the Tories are divided and unpopular. But it’s about more than just a 45p tax cut, which was a bad idea, or the U-turn, which was suicidal (if a centre-Right government can’t pass a tax cut with an 80-seat majority, it’s dead in the water).