But in the end it wasn’t Hall who was the problem (and some ill-advised tweets early in her campaign had cast her in a poor light for many), it was her policies: she didn’t really have any. I sat down with her for a 90-minute talk at last year’s Conservative conference in Manchester and she said she was going to campaign on crime and Ulez. Oh, and not being Khan. And er, that was it. Myself and the parliamentary team chatted to her for an hour and a half without managing to glean anything personal or additionally relevant at all. Small-talk enquiries about which football team she supports, favourite restaurants and cultural netherworlds were met with shrugs or, oddly, “Why do you want to know that?” Like I say, we all quite liked her as a person, but worried about her ability to convincingly connect with people. And so it has proved. She is living proof that the Conservatives have given up on London.