For the first time in my life, I have joined the Conservative Party. It cost £25 and took less than a minute online. But it has been a long personal political odyssey that included being so disaffected with the brand of so-called Conservatism espoused by David Cameron and George Osborne, which threatened to fasten us with iron cuffs to the European Union in perpetuity, that I voted Ukip in 2015. Indeed, I stood for the seat of North Warwickshire for Ukip on a pro-countryside ticket, campaigning to save the very aesthetic soul of England from Osborne’s bulldozers.