It is fashionable to attack our ancient first-past-the post (FPTP) system and praise the proportional representation (PR) systems used on the European continent.

Beware of this. The Left like PR because it generally favours them. The new parliaments and assemblies which have come into being since the Blairite revolution all have some measure of PR in them.

In fact, it is perfectly possible for voters – and party leaders – to use the FPTP system to get what they want. Equally importantly, it is possible to prevent what they do not want, if they act knowledgeably and intelligently.

Nigel Farage helped secure a majority of 80 for Boris Johnson’s Tories, in 2019, by withdrawing Brexit candidates from dozens of seats where they might have destroyed Tory majorities. This was a brilliant piece of tactical politics.

If he had not done so, the Tories would not have done so well. Mr Farage made no immediate gain for himself or his party, but showed clearly how much power he could wield. He probably destroyed the hopes of Remainers who wanted to re-run the EU referendum.

Left-wingers have used tactical voting in the past, and it worked quite well for them in 2024. But it was the failure of the Right to think tactically that had the most impact.

The Right shipwrecked itself that year by pig-headed self-indulgence. It was well known to almost all the world that large-scale defections from the Tory vote would not bring about a Reform landslide. Reform’s support was too thinly spread. On the contrary, it was known that such defections would lead to a large-scale victory by Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

Those who made this argument were drowned out by Reform supporters saying that the Tories deserved to lose and ought to be punished. But that was a fundamental misunderstanding of the power of the vote.

Nigel Farage helped secure a majority of 80 for Boris Johnson’s Tories, in 2019, by withdrawing Brexit candidates from dozens of seats where they might have destroyed Tory majorities

Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage must unite and get Labour out and prevent a nightmare Labour, Lib Dems and Green coalition

As we see now, few of those directly responsible for the Tory decline between 2019 and 2024 are suffering from their loss of office.

But the country, and especially its striving classes, are suffering grievously from severe tax increases and from the general dogmatic incompetence at home and abroad which experienced citizens know to expect when Labour is in power.

Perhaps those who did this are now open to a rethink, especially given that a poll last week suggested that a nightmare coalition of Labour, the Lib Dems and the Green Party may have the backing of more than half the electorate.

Let us hope that Tory and Reform voters are keen to prevent such a coalition from storming into power.

We have some news which may help them. As Labour totters and blunders, a new election may be sooner than we think.

Today, we publish a fascinating survey that shows an agreement between Reform and the Tories could give the Right an extra 81 seats in total –- all of which would otherwise be won by Left-wing rivals.

It would also unhorse several prominent Labour figures. Labour is nothing like as safe as it thinks, or as it looks.

The message is simple and clear: the Right must unite and get Labour out, whoever is leading them.