After several years when time was running out for the Tories, time is now on their side. They have so much of it that, if they have any sense, they will use it wisely to rebuild themselves as a disciplined and effective political force.

Heaven knows the country needs such a force, as the Starmer government aggressively asserts itself – releasing thousands of prisoners, declaring the NHS 'broken' (and so lowering all expectations of it fixing it) and planning to fill our fields and hills with stark new housing estates and windfarms.

There is going to be much more of this, which will need to be opposed, cunningly, effectively and persistently, as Labour reveals its true intentions and resorts, as it always does, to binge-spending our taxes and then inevitably runs out of money.

As an exhausted, squabbling and dazed government, the Conservatives became objects rather than subjects, pushed around and swept this way and that by events, scandals and accidents. And all the time, the clock was ticking away, as their five years ran out.

Now they have so much time that some seem to think they have slipped into an alternative universe where no one can see or hear them. They even appear to believe that the thick silence which has settled on the Shadow Cabinet suite at Westminster means that the first rule of politics – when you say something embarrassing, it will be leaked – has been suspended.

It hasn't, as Kemi Badenoch now knows only too well. After she rebuked Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman, and it swiftly became public, she complained that it was a 'shame' it had got out. She had suggested a 'private space' for Conservatives to discuss their challenges. To which the only response must be 'good luck with that'.

For far too long, the Tories have enjoyed attacking each other rather more than they have enjoyed governing, fighting elections or, indeed, winning them.

From the way that some behaved in the days after defeat, we might have thought that they had been looking forward to being beaten so that they could resume their internecine and silly quarrels.

The Tories brawled and bickered their way into opposition, thinking they could defy the iron law that parties which attack themselves lose elections. They couldn't. And that part of the nation which relies on the Tory party to defend its interests has, as a result, been terribly let down.

While Tory MPs and ministers indulged themselves, made public fools of themselves and eventually blundered into one of the most inept election campaigns in history, two things happened.

First, Sir Keir Starmer, by remaining almost totally silent about his intentions and enforcing a ferocious discipline on his party, recovered the confidence of many voters – and also of opinion formers. The Corbyn era and the embarrassing leadership of Ed Miliband were both forgotten.

At the same time, Nigel Farage cleverly marshalled his forces on the Tories' right flank.

In truth, Mr Farage is a man of referendums, not a man of elections, and he cunningly managed to make the contest into a referendum on the Tory party, in which many possible or former Tory voters chose to teach their party a lesson regardless of the outcome.

Well, they have certainly given the Tory party no end of a lesson.

It huddles together on the Opposition benches, a tattered and demoralised army so shrunken that even Starmer has offered a gesture of sympathy to beaten Tory leader Mr Sunak.

With a Commons majority so vast, he can afford to be generous in this way, but he will not show the same generosity when it comes to pursuing his deeply anti-Tory aims, especially the subtle and skilful reversal of Brexit which The Mail on Sunday has already shown to be under way.

The Tories must make a new start, driven by the urgent need to persuade their traditional supporters that they are the real opposition to Labour and that they can once again form a majority government.

To do this, they must land shrewd blows on the Starmer government at every opportunity – in Parliament and outside.

But they must also persuade the defectors to Reform that the future of Brexit, and the other policies desired by them, lies with the Tory party and not outside it.

They must also fight back against the growth of the Liberal Democrats, more of a principle-free zone than a party, who feed on Tory weakness.

This is no simple task, given the many cross-currents and conflicts still thriving within the diminished ranks of the Conservatives' backbench 1922 Committee.

There is also a danger that the remaining Tory MPs, still in a state of shock from the size and brutality of their rout, may make a rash and ill-advised choice of new leader which they will then repent at leisure.

Even so, the task of finding that Sunak replacement must be accomplished, and it will be better if it is done slowly.

The Tories have not helped themselves in recent years by rushing to judgment.

This process will surely require a caretaker leader who can step down when a permanent new chief is elected. Mr Sunak plainly does not wish to remain, as a walking symbol of defeat who carries little authority because of his own serious errors in the campaign.

Several influential voices are discussing the possibility of asking Sir Iain Duncan Smith to step in to oversee the period of reflection and rebuilding which is now needed.

Sir Iain has vital and unique experience for such a role. He was himself a Tory leader in troubled times, and later became a respected Cabinet Minister. He could perform the role taken by the then Michael Howard, who in 2005 delayed his departure as leader for seven months to give time for the party to find a replacement. On that occasion, the slow-motion process ended with the election of David Cameron and the Tories' return to power.

It is therefore a reasonably good precedent.

The Tories also probably need some reforms in the way they pick their leader, but this may not be possible in these circumstances. The main change they require is in themselves – a recovery of their old team spirit and discipline, and perhaps the re-adoption of the informal motto which used to guide them, coined by the veteran MP and fighting sailor Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles, 'Pro bono publico, no bloody panico'.

Pared back to the bone, shocked, humiliated, forced for the first time in years to look chilly reality straight in the face, the Tories owe it to the rest of us to rediscover the dogged, fighting vim and purpose which has kept them in being for nearly two centuries.

To do so, they must recognise that they have no permanent right to exist, but that in each generation they must win that right back. Guided by humility, responsibility, restraint and determination, they can do it.

The country needs a Conservative Party, for the sake of its liberty, stability and prosperity.

For all our sakes, we wish them success.