And so to a bit of post-match election analysis.

While nationally the country turned red, here in Salisbury both the winners and losers were left somewhat blue, albeit in different ways.

Congratulations to John Glen, re-elected Salisbury MP, but on a vastly reduced majority, tumbling from almost 20,000 in 2019 to less than 4,000.

His 34 per cent share of those who voted is well down on his 55 per cent, 58 per cent and 56 per cent polling in previous elections.

The fact that Glen didn’t go the same way as a number of his former cabinet colleagues I’d put down to three particular factors.

Firstly, Glen got lucky in the redrawing of the parliamentary boundaries, which removed Amesbury from the constituency and replaced it with a slew of villages in places like the Nadder Valley.

With the rural vote traditionally more supportive of the Conservatives, that worked in his favour and against his opponents: a look back over his campaign suggested this was where he spent most time campaigning: lots of country pub lunches and not a single one in Salisbury itself.

Glen’s second stroke of luck was his Reform candidate. Julian Malins’ appalling views about Vladimir Putin were ones that must have given even some rabid Reformers pause.

While Reform polled 14 per cent nationally, Malins got only 10 per cent of the vote in Salisbury – a difference of 2,000 votes that a less controversial Reformer may have taken.

Glen’s final bit of fortune was the way the progressive vote broke down: combined, the Labour vote (26.5 per cent) and the Lib Dem vote (23.6 per cent) was enough to defeat him comfortably.

Unfortunately, that vote ended up being split in two. Here, I’d put the blame on the Lib Dems, who ran a negative ‘Labour can’t win here’ campaign, despite the data suggesting (and proving) that Labour were best placed to challenge.

Just as the Lib Dems nationally helped David Cameron into power in 2010, so locally in 2024, their campaign helped the Conservatives win again.

I’ve lost track of the number of conversations I’ve had since with people calling the Lib Dems names I can’t repeat here, but their failure to read the room feels a real missed opportunity.

In his victory speech, Glen said that he was here to serve the people of Salisbury.

As such, now he is once more a columnist colleague, may I ask for his answer to a question I posed in a piece a couple of weeks ago: will he commit to working solely for Salisbury and rule out taking any secondary paid roles for the duration of this parliament?

To rebuild trust in the constituency, that would be a quick marker as to whether his victory speech was well meant or just empty words.