Two weeks ago I was in Asheville, North Carolina. A university city at the western edge of that swing state, one that an Uber driver assured me was “an island of blue in a sea of red”.

I was there visiting my son who is studying there. All the signs were good for Hillary Clinton's campaign. Republican voters told me they were voting Democrat.

The campus was plastered with posters. Student activists were being bused around. When the result came in, I messaged my son to see how things were. “People are crying,” he replied, “I'm trying to comfort them.”

This was a win for the ages. An inspiration for the political Right and a message to the centre-left: your time is over. The Third Way: born 1992, died 2016, buried alongside the presidential hopes of Hillary Clinton.