Within weeks of Harold Macmillan succeeding Anthony Eden as prime minister in January 1957 after the Suez debacle, Cabinet ministers were chortling to themselves over cocktails in their clubs that the party was back in business. What had all the fuss been about? It was as if Suez, which threatened at the time to blow the party out of the water, had been a mirage in the Arabian Desert.

Macmillan had in no time soothed frazzled nerves across the country and restored relations with international partners, including the United States, which had been at an all-time nadir when President Eisenhower, who had warned Britain sternly not to invade Egypt, then threatened serious damage to the British financial system by selling sterling bonds. The Conservatives went on to win a stonking landslide in the 1959 general election. Job done.

Optimists compare the current predicament in the Conservative Party to that time 60 years ago when it quickly recovered under its new leader. Surely David Davis or Boris Johnson will be able to perform the same miracle? Under fresh leadership, their argument goes, the party would quickly recover its vitality at home and abroad.