To revive, the Conservatives need to reclaim competence – and stop imitating Reform

Years of blunders have wrecked the Tory brand. Mimicking Farage won't rebuild it - owning the party's failures might

- Andrew Rawnsley

There is a yawning gap in the British political marketplace. Most tastes are catered for - except the one that used to dominate our country.

You yearn for simplistic, fantastical and often downright dangerous back-of-a-beer-mat answers to complex challenges? Nigel Farage and his motley crew are the people for you. You want an interventionist tax-and-spend government? Enjoy, because you've got that already. You're kind of in the middle, really wish we were still in the EU, and feel let down by how Labour is working out? See that jolly fella squeezed into a wet suit? I think you'll take to Sir Ed Davey. You want eco-socialism with elevated taxes on wealth, every public utility in state hands and all drugs legalised? Swipe left for Zack Polanski of the Greens. Nationalist options are available in Scotland and Wales.

What's missing from this smorgasbord of choice is a centre-right party that focuses on economic competence, encourages enterprise and keeps a grip on public spending, while being respectful of traditions such as the independence of a judiciary that has been admired by the rest of the world. Broadly speaking, this space was historically covered by the Conservative party, and very successfully too. It wasn't an accident that the Tories were called the "natural party of government" or that people once said "the facts of life are Conservative". They did so because they were in power - sometimes in coalition, more often alone - for 73 of the 107 years since the introduction of universal male suffrage.