There’s perhaps a good reason why you might not have noticed that Wednesday marked the start of this year’s CPAC – or Conservative Political Action Conference – in the US.

The event which pretty much defined the political calendar during the Trump years has lost favour in 2023, despite being held in Washington DC, which should have provided an even greater incentive for America’s conservatives to attend. Yet, strangely, they don’t seem too eager to make the short trip to National Harbor, Maryland. Well, at least not all of them.