For shell-shocked Conservatives, there has been very little internal debate so far about what the party should do to restore its fortunes. The impasse is inevitable after a gruelling and draining spell in the spotlight where, to be frank, the party probably ended up making about the same progress during its campaign as if it had stayed silent for six weeks. It has some fundamental difficulties – or challenges – that it didn’t have back in 1997 when it was decimated in the Tony Blair landslide victory. Chief among these is the burgeoning popularity of Nigel Farage’s Reform party which took arou…