When will Rory Stewart’s time come?

Can a dose of moral earnestness revive Tory fortunes? This is the question raised by Rory Stewart’s recent memoir, Politics on the Edge: A Memoir From Within, which sits on top of the bestseller charts more than three months after it came out. Another question the book raises is this: is Stewart’s brand of moral earnestness the right one? His politics is rich in old-world honour, like that of a John Buchan hero. The reader half expects him to uncover a plot to sell Britain to China, and then be chased by soulless technocrats through moonlit moorland.

On one level, it didn’t work: when he stood for the leadership against Johnson and others, he seemed too intense, too eccentric. But maybe the party wasn’t ready for him. Maybe it had to consummate its relationship with Johnson, to drink the clownish cup to the lees, before it was ready for a rethink.