ZM, I could not provide a link yesterday, because I long since refused to start paying for access behind the pay-wall at The Times....hardly a left-leaning paper!
Accordingly, here are a couple of points from Matthew Parris's article there yesterday.
The heading was, "A Tory schism is now all but inevitable" and its sub-heading read, "Douglas Carswell's defection is part of a strategy to scupper the EU referendum and take over the Conservative party."
To me, that notion of a take-over is far from sounding like the puny little revolt that you seem to be suggesting! In addition, have you seen the poll today on voting intentions in Clacton itself? UKIP are 44% ahead of the Tories!