Have the Conservatives stopped the slide towards irrelevance their opponents had hoped for?

Have the Conservatives stopped the slide towards irrelevance their opponents had hoped for?

It’s a Hollywood cliché shot. A protagonist sliding seemingly inexorably to the precipice that will signal their doom and just before it happens, they dig in and somehow halt their death slide. They lie there breathless and shaken in the moment, and slowly, very slowly start the difficult climb back up out of harm’s way. After the activity of the leadership contest and the relative interest in that, a narrative built up, fuelled by a desire from…