Mark Clark (left) was always the favourite to be the winner of the CF leadership last night, he told Guido over a pint that he’d poll personally more than the total 494 votes cast last year and that the turnout would be at least double the previous year. As it turned out he scraped through on a terribly low turnout.

If Caroline Hunt had pulled in a mere 24 votes more from Mark she would be leading the Tory youth wing. Despite being much better organised and financed Mark only narrowly won, possibly because he pitched himself as the CCHQ-approved candidate, not necessarily the most appealing pitch. His campaign was professional but managerial, all about process not ideology. Is that right for a political party’s youth wing? Guido said before that this approach was “hardly an inspirational rallying cry to Britain’s youth” – and so it turned out.

CFUK claims some 15,000 members, only 775 voted in the leadership race, a dismal 5.1% turnout. Maybe next year a candidate should run with a political manifesto rather than a business plan?