Like everyone, I have been reading the papers, watching the television, and trying to figure out what on earth happens next, with the benefit that any predictions are almost certainly going to be untrue. But the thing which seems to be missing from the discussion is what happens to the big heavyweights of what used to be the Conservative Party. The group includes not just Ken Clarke, the father of the house, and Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Winston Churchill, but also Rory Stewart, the cleverest and most independent-minded of the leadership candidates, Justine Greening, Dominic Grieve, Philip Hammond, David Gauke, Sam Gyimah, Oliver Letwin and Margot James, not to forget Ed Vaizey, former Minister of the Arts, whose father changed parties long ago. They have all been unceremoniously booted out of their own party by a combination of threats and intimidation. They have shown themselves to be people of conscience, unwilling to be cowed by the ruthless and vengeful Cummings. So where do they go ? Of course, what would be best would be a liberal/liberal conservative working group. Surely there must be some form of reconstruction of the centre ground against Johnson’s version of the Brexit party. I think and hope that the future is interestingly unpredictable and that what this group now decides will determine the country’s fate.