If I could go back in time to one moment in history, it would be to 20 July 1969 at 21:17 BST, when Neil Armstrong stepped on the surface of the moon. I mean, just look at Walter Cronkite’s face. But given a second whirl in the time machine, I’d opt for 3:10am on 2 May 1997, when Michael Portillo lost his seemingly unlosable Enfield Southgate seat.
This does not stem from any personal animus against Portillo, who has since become somewhat of a national treasure and who in the small hours of election night delivered a really rather composed and gracious speech, unlike, erm, some other defeated candidates. I simply would have liked to know what a Portillo moment felt like. Ed Balls’ seat in 2015 was far too marginal to qualify.
