Amid the varied ramblings of Boris Johnson’s victory speech — quite a feat to aim for Churchill but end appealing to the nation’s “dudes” — there was at least one moment of clarity.

“If you look at the history of the last two hundred years of this party’s existence,” he said, “you will see that it is we, Conservatives, who have had the greatest . . .  insights into how to manage the jostling sets of instincts in the human heart.”

Johnson might have intended this line to set up a homespun parable about the need to balance the desires to own a house and to share your wealth (a view of society’s dilemmas from above if there ever was one) but instincts will, in fact, play an important role in framing the Johnson premiership.