Last July, when commenting on the record worst Conservative general election result, I fell back on philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's aphorism of how, if a person stares into the abyss long enough, the abyss will eventually stare right back at them.  Taking that famous line from the movie Jaws, the first point to take from the early results and indications is that the Conservative party is going to need a bigger abyss.

In fairness this hasn't been a case of expectation management on behalf of CCHQ.  Starting as they did from the apogee of Boris Johnson's post vaccine rollout bounce, and holding 16 of the 24 local authorities going to the polls and the vast preponderance – 1,182 of the 1,641council seats up for grabs, the Conservatives had the most to lose.