When the Conservatives last met in Blackpool two years ago, they carried unsheathed knives beneath their coats. Fatally wounded, the self-styled quiet man Iain Duncan Smith was ousted from the leadership before the month was out. This week, we are promised, it is different. Michael Howard, briefly beneficiary of Mr Duncan Smith’s execution, has fallen on the voters’ sword. The party is looking to the future.

British democracy has suffered grievously these past few years from the lack of an effective opposition. Try as it may, the BBC’s Today programme is insufficient substitute. So we must hope the Tories are serious. Yet parallels with the past are still beguiling for a party trapped in former glories. It says something about the demographic profile of today’s Conservatives that many of those in Blackpool can probably recall as if it were on Monday another such gathering more than 40 years ago.