Dr Alf is right and if the head of the 1922 Committee really wants to know why the Conservatives lost I would be happy to enlighten him.

May is, as Dr Alf says, a loser and has a record of non-delivery on police reform, immigration, economic performance, security and terrorism. She makes fine speeches, tries to look fashionable and to quote from the “Godfather” tugs her husband around like a lovesick farm animal by the “ring” she has clearly fashioned for his nose. When she speaks it is to people who agree with her but when she meets someone who disagrees with her like Phil Hammond the dirty work until now has been left to the foul mouthed Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill.

Always May is being controlled by events, rather than shaping them and making history, facts on the ground. She is always chairing meetings, trying to sound important and discussing things with her Cabinet. She claims to be learning but the Cabinet and she look old, tired and defeated, just like an England football team boarding a plane at the World cup. Just by looking at them (May’s cabinet), you can see defeat staring them in the face, it is not just that “defeat can be discerned” to change Sun Tzu’s quote from the Art of War but it is writ large in neon lights for all to see.

Mrs May is incapable of getting herself or the Conservative Party out of anything because she is now damaged goods who took silly advice from David Davis the Chief Brexit negotiator, who against the advice of Sir Lynton Crosby, ignored the fact that the poll lead was 10 points and not 20 points and was therefore too little to overcome the inbuilt bias of the present constituency boundaries which give Labour an 11 point advantage in every election.

Even my younger sister, Elizabeth, who is Conservative with a small “c” was astonished at the “Dementia tax “, no word on the economy and the fact that there was not a single “bone” of hope for the young to fasten on to. She predicted a hung Parliament, long before Dimbleby and Vine pretending to be a latter day Peter Snow had reached the same conclusion.

The young want some assurance that going to university, racking up painful debts and making an effort will lead to a better future, the possibility of owning a house and the things their elders take for granted.

The proletariat and those that life has passed by want a roadmap that indicates that May and the Conservatives have figured a way to get back to prosperity for the broad mass of people.

They failed to deliver even a tough “straight and narrow way” but Corbyn promised Nirvana and hid the costs in annexes that he knew no-one would read, attached to the Labour manifesto. The mantra the 1970s “was a long time ago and no-one remembers what happened” was used by Labour to show how events have moved on but no-one from the Conservative Party reminded them of what happened and how we were bailed out by the Sultan of Brunai and would need another bailout if all Jeremy Corbyn’s policies were enacted.

All we got from May was, “Their sums don’t add up”, with no further explanation.

The nurse who hadn’t had a pay rise in 9 years was dismissed by May with the words “We will go on funding the NHS but there is no magic money tree”, followed by a dismissive wave of her hand and a head swivel to the next disgruntled questioner. There was not one word of explanation, empathy or contrition, and the body language said it all–“I don’t care and you had better get on with it”.

That may well be the reality but politics is a people business and you need to be able to offer hope and sound caring even if your exterior is gruff and no nonsense.

Looking ahead the Conservatives best hope is Boris plus a new Cabinet but he will have to deliver from day one by making the country more competitive so that if the Brexit talks fail which they probably will, the country can still succeed and prosper over the long term.

John Gelmini