Such comforting (but ultimately illusory) complacency was in evidence just after what was arguably an even more comprehensive defeat in May 1997. How did that turn out?
A national membership system is a good start, but it must be accompanied by pro-active engagement from local associations.
Even if each of them who did anything at all did far less than paid up members, the sum of their individual efforts was at least as great and probably greater.
Yet even if their concerns don’t ultimately lead to them backing someone else, these shouldn’t simply be dismissed as having no consequences.
After decades of decline, the membership figures of the main political parties are on the rise. But will it make a difference?
The ideal is all the more necessary in a polity in which a plurality of just 30-something percent can win you virtually untrammelled power.
Whoever the next Prime Minister may be, they have an opportunity to unite their party, win a snap election and drive Farage back to the political fringe.
One would be hard-pressed to think of a single mainstream centre-right party that has melted down even the most fundamental of internal disagreements.
The number of them wanting to leave come-what-may could be as high as 100 but it could also be under 40.
Can the Tory leader pull of an election victory? Only if he stops going through the motions, which seem to have been set by someone else.
Digital technology offers the chance to reform the state, as well as politics.
The party should embrace electoral reform – at least for local elections. Give Conservative voters a slither of hope by introducing, say, the Single Transferable Vote.
The overall gap between Labour and Conservative grassroots members is huge: we’re not just talking chalk and cheese but Mars and Venus – carnivores and herbivores, even.