The YCs didn't always help their cause. In a sniffy newsletter editorial, one YC poured scorn on Sixties fashion. "I have always imagined models to be curvaceous young ladies in their twenties, beautifully powdered, painted and manicured, and speaking with an Oxfordian accent. I was surprised to read the other day, however, about a certain Twiggy, who in addition to being a 17-year-old Cockney, admits to biting her nails."

The days of the Young Conservatives were numbered. In the August 1964 issue of the South Hammersmith branch newsletter, the editor wrote: "This is the last edition of the Digest before the General Election . . . I am looking forward to October. I hope you all are! Then we will have a chance to play our part in what I expect to be a grand victory. Let us make sure that Sir Alex Douglas-Home is returned to No. 10."

That October, the Conservatives lost the election after 13 years in power and the South Hammersmith Digest ceased publication. Within two years, membership of the youth branch of the party had fallen to 54,000. It would never fully recover. There was a short-lived spike in membership in the late 1960s — enough to help Edward Heath into government in 1970 — but the days of haymaking and trips to the local lace factory were over.

At the YC conference in 1971, Peter Thomas, vice-chairman of the party, issued a stark warning: "If the party shall continue to obtain only a minority of votes among young people then the long term prospects are very bleak."

Heath was the last Conservative prime minister to actively court the party's youth branch. When a delegation of YCs visited the People's Republic of China, they were affectionately described to the Chinese as "Heath's children". On leaving office, he wrote an open letter to the YCs which read: "All my political life I have owed a special debt to the Young Conservatives. The trust I always gave to you was not misplaced. I know you will not betray it. Good luck to you all."