Plus: Batley & Spen is no Hartlepool. LibDems eye Chesham & Amersham. And: will the West Ham variant hit Europe?
His capacity to win some of his severest critics round, and persuade them of his “greatness of soul”, helps explain his success.
A tale of fatal misunderstandings, tensions and deep differences – and of a potential cycle of grievance which all the leadership candidates must stop before it starts.
Plus: Leadsom comes up on the rails. Why men should never wear red trousers. And: 100 years on from the Battle of the Somme.
Endorsements don’t matter all that much. But the tone and flavour of coverage does – what stories are selected; how they are written; how they are projected.
But Samantha Cameron and Marina Wheeler have proved less forthcoming than Rachel Johnson and Sarah Vine.
Plus: The CCHQ charm school. Disgraceful Livingstone. Untruthful Clegg. Nasty Russell Brand. Where I’ll be on election night. And: Advice to candidates for the count.
The Daily Mail columnist, and wife of the Chief Whip, was appearing on the Daily Politics.
The Prime Minister’s interview yesterday was a reminder of the fact.