It’s a sign of how gaslit Conservative activists have been by this campaign, but at the time of writing – about 1am – the Tories I’m talking to are weirdly chipper.

The exit poll has us on more than 130 seats – by one interpretation on more than 140; we are, please God, on track to be the official opposition. The Scottish Tories are forecast to have done a sterling job taking the fight to the Scottish National Party, wresting half a dozen seats from a party that wants to break up our country.

Yet whilst these and other findings may yet offer much-needed crumbs of comfort to Conservatives, it’s important that we not lose sight of the big picture: whatever the final result, it will be the worst in the long and (usually) distinguished history of the Conservative and Unionist Party.

The 1997 election was an historic rout, after which we spent the best part of a decade wondering if the party would ever take office again – and at that election we still returned about 40 per cent more members of parliament than we seem likely to do this year.

When the dust has settled, there will be a Conservative leadership contest. At the heart of it will be one question: how on earth did we end up........

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