Times thunders that the next Conservative leader must be a man or woman of principle, not just a crowd-pleaser…

Every candidate suggests the same prescription for electoral revival: every one wants to lower taxes while no one is willing to countenance anything less than a substantial increase in defence spending. To do that, other departmental spending would have to be cut. Yet all candidates acknowledge to varying degrees that public services suffered under ­Conservative management — suggesting that they would be unwilling to make sometimes ­unpalatable decisions on spending in office.

If leadership means anything it is the willingness to put principle before immediate popularity. So far in this competition, the goal that serious Tories pride themselves on prioritising above all others, sound money, is running a distant second to ­gesture politics.