In 2002, Theresa May as Conservative Party chairman set out a challenge to members in what is commonly referred to as her “nasty party” speech. It is worth reading again to see the clear course of inclusivity she charted, and the direct inference that we owed a duty to the country to shape up and become a tenable alternative government.

“Let’s not kid ourselves. Our base is too narrow and so, occasionally, are our sympathies. You know what some people call us – the nasty party.

“I know that’s unfair. You know that’s unfair but it’s the people out there we need to convince – and we can only do that by avoiding behaviour and attitudes that play into the hands of our opponents. No more glib moralising, no more hypocritical finger-wagging... I want us to be the party that represents the whole of Britain.”

Well, there’s only one political tribe that fits the ''nasty party’’ tag now; which has made glib moralising and hypocritical finger-wagging an Olympic sport; which narrows its sympathies every day, casting off apostates so the pool is narrowed to an ever smaller number of the ideologically pure.