Tony Blair surfed to power on a self-created wave of populism

A useless prime minister, with as much power left in her as a dead Duracell at the bottom of a supermarket's battery disposal bin. A useless leader of the opposition, about as functional as one of those brick-sized mobile phones from the 1980s that never really worked. If you're embarrassed by Theresa May's hopelessness in front of her opposite numbers on the continent (they clearly are; have you noticed how none of them makes eye contact with her any more?), prepare to die of shame if shambling Uncle Allotment takes her place with his rambling, sub-Marxist diatribes.

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But nothing lasts for ever; nature abhors, etc. Corbyn will be dumped soon enough, although the death-grip Labour's hard-left membership has on the party's windpipe ensures Jezza's successor will choke out the same old discredited 1970s guff.

The Tories have a different problem but it's potentially more fixable than Labour's.

They've lost any semblance of an ideology (do you know what the Conservative Party stands for right now? Nope, me neither) but that means they actually have wider options. So what sort of leader should they choose to replace The Useless One? Safe, or swashbuckling? There's a time for a steady hand on the tiller, the sensible middle way, strong and stable (actually, it's never a time for "strong and stable" if your leader keeps repeating the slogan like a robot with all its software fried).

And there's a time for showboating, over-the-top symbolism and sheer, insouciant grandstanding. And after May's dismal tenure, that time is surely now.

Think Winston Churchill - or rather, think his shameless gimmickry. The giant cigar. Posing with that Tommy-gun. Homburg hat; V-for-Victory sign (sometimes mischievously reversed to convey a rather blunter message to Hitler).

Churchill's speeches, on the stump and at the despatch box, were frequently short on detail but never on rousing rhetoric.

The growing call for "another Churchill" isn't some sentimental piece of political nostalgia. It's a reflection of a current, visceral need, hunger even, for a natural-born leader.

borisFormer London mayor Boris Johnson (Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

blairFormer British Prime Minister Tony Blair (Image: Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Actually, we've had a few since Winston. Tony Blair surfed to power on a self-created wave of populism and breezy certainty.

So did Margaret Thatcher. Both were hugely convincing public performers and understood the importance of razzle-dazzle showmanship.

Blair - who despite ignominy and banishment post-Iraq, remains

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