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This has been the most important election in over forty years. Margaret Thatcher’s first victory in 1979 fundamentally changed the course of Britain’s history, and Boris Johnson’s victory

this morning shows many signs of doing exactly the same. Dominic Cummings has long talked about his plans for radically changing the British system; now he has the greatest opportunity to do

exactly that. If this was to be a Brexit election, then the Remain side seems to have resoundingly lost. Labour Remainers have been wiped out across England, with Jeremy Corbyn’s forlorn

ambiguity losing votes on both sides of the divide. The Liberal Democrats, who started this election with a heady optimism about their chances of becoming a major force in Parliament again

have seen the cruel reality of Britain’s archaic electoral system. As the only voice unequivocally in favour of Remaining, the Lib Dems’ poor showing heralds the death throes of the Remain

movement. The Lib Dems have also lost their leader. Jo Swinson has been defeated in East Dunbartonshire, which leaves the party without a leader and no clear future in Parliament. Despite

prospering in highly Remain-voting constituencies, such as St Albans and Richmond, the party has failed to beat the Tories in southern seats they could once rely on — voters in St Ives were

put off by the extreme revoke stance, and moderate liberals who were enthusiastic about a second referendum were not persuaded by Swinson’s unrealistic stance. The Lib Dem’s failure to make

significant gains in enough of the southern seats, which they had held until 2015, can be linked to their revoke strategy, given that much of Devon and Cornwall voted Leave. Any hopes for a

political compromise were extinguished by the hubristic arrogance of the new strategy. Swinson’s failure to create a new liberal revival that echoed the _En Marche _movement is not so much a

reflection of the Lib Dems’ failure but more the success of Boris Johnson in the English midlands and north. The Brexit Party’s withdrawal from Tory seats prevented a division in the Brexit

vote; and Labour’s refusal to join any Remain alliances took a significant number of votes away from the Lib Dems. Swinson started the campaign with a pitch to a small minority of voters:

hard Remainers who are intent on revoking the result; she ostracised moderates who saw the chance of blocking out Corbyn as more important than the reversal of Brexit. Many were also

attracted by Johnson’s meretricious promise of an end to the Brexit impasse, which has given him such headway in the midlands and the north among Brexit voters. It is that coalition of

prosperous traditional Tory voters and northern Brexiteers that has given Johnson his majority. The Lib Dems have failed to break through the marginals they needed to create any future for

Remainers in Parliament. It is that failure to break through that is the final nail in the coffin of the Remain movement, which has fought a cause without the support of the two main parties

in Westminster for three and a half years. The disastrous results for the Lib Dems across the country display a clear need for a change in strategy for the party. Boris Johnson will fulfill

his pledge to “Get Brexit Done” by the end of January, and any campaign to Stop Brexit will be left behind as politics shifts onto other issues. The Lib Dems have made themselves the

implacable figures of an anti-Brexit movement, but with this movement falling into dust there is a need for change. The liberal movement is on its knees. It is showing many of the symptoms

of that “strange death” predicted by George Dangerfield in 1935.