In 1997, this country came under the control of a revolutionary regime, misleadingly dressed in reassuring clothing. 

Led by the smooth-spoken public schoolboy Tony Blair, the new power sought to appear conservative and cautious.

It claimed to have cast off the radicalism of the old Labour Party and to be something completely new. Many were lulled. But one central statistic, only now available, reveals the deep, driving aim of the Blair administration. 

It wished to transform the country, to make Conservative thinking and policies irrelevant, and to make any repeal of its agenda impossible.

Key to this was a level of mass immigration never before seen in the history of this country. This is the vital figure: in the 28 years between 1969 and 1997, the population of the UK rose by three million. 

In the 28 years which have followed, it has risen by 11 million.

In many parts of the kingdom, this astounding increase is instantly visible. The country is noticeably more crowded. 

Roads, public transport, schools, hospitals, GP surgeries, dentists, water supply, sewerage, housing availability, are all under pressure as never before.

The Blairites never officially warned us of this, but one of their number, the speechwriter Andrew Neather, lifted a corner of the curtain in a 2009 article which candidly admitted 'a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural'. 

He confessed that he had come away from meetings 'with the clear sense that the policy was intended – even if this wasn't its main purpose – to rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date'.

He also disclosed that Ministers were frightened of discussing 'what increased immigration would mean, above all for Labour's core white working-class vote'.

Their fears were justified. Especially since the EU referendum of 2016, Labour's working-class voters have been leaving in great numbers. And the only weapon the Blairite elite have ever had against their critics, Tory or working-class Labour, has been to accuse those critics of racism. 

They have been doing so incessantly for almost 30 years. Like a lot of false charges, it often sticks, and many in the Tory Party went along with the Blairite revolution for fear of such smears.

Nigel Farage, by contrast, walked through a blizzard of Blairite slime and came out spotless. Yet still, the real theme of Labour's pathetic conference in Liverpool last week was to hurl the same weary insult at Mr Farage.

It is no longer working. And it certainly cannot work against the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who knows that her party must once again respect its voters or die.

The new package on limiting immigration (and especially illegal immigration), which The Mail on Sunday reveals today, is a real step away from the Tories' previous complacency about the issue. 

Mrs Badenoch deserves praise for breaking irrevocably with the Blairite consensus which has done so much harm since 1997. Let us hope that her actions have not come too late.

The Blairite plan to make traditional Conservative arguments 'out of date' has come close to succeeding.

And yet it may just be that as the hypnotic spell of Blairism slowly lifts, there is a last, unexpected chance for a Conservative renaissance. Let us hope so, and also hope that Mr Farage and Mrs Badenoch do not throw away that opportunity by fighting each other, while their real opponents benefit from their divisions.