Duncan Simpson: Three tasks for Johnson. Cull quangos. End taxpayer-funded lobbying. And reform appointments.

Cleaning up the state won’t be a quick and easy task. But if Boris Johnson doesn’t grasp the nettle, it will certainly come back to sting.

Why YouGov’s good poll for Johnson may be bad news for him

We say again that there is a danger of Conservative expectations getting ahead of the electoral facts.

Johnson’s August 4) Who would run an election campaign? After yesterday’s Government defeat, the question is pressing.

If the campaign management were outsourced, as recently, who would take it on? And if it weren’t, could CCHQ really cope?

Hunt interview: “I’m clearly second-placed now to Boris, and ready to argue that we have better choices as a country than he is offering.”

He says he’s best placed to deliver Brexit, slash corporation tax and beat Corbyn. And adds “I am not going to criticise Boris for going to a posher public school than me.”

Iain Dale: Johnson – unstoppable now, unless he unstops himself

Many will hope that Gove and Hunt duke it out in a constructive way for the right to take on the man who is the clear winner from the week’s events.

For a long time, the polls were scarcely worth watching. Not any more.

Conservative MPs should not sit idly by as their party’s ratings sink to the mid-30s and below. There’s reason to think the change isn’t temporary.

Interview: Kemi Badenoch – “I’m not really left-leaning on anything…I always lean right instinctively”

She voted for Davis in 2005, and her hero is Airey Neave: “The escape from Colditz is I think probably the coolest thing any British politician has ever done.”

Ashcroft’s new book: at the general election May failed to stop the Tories being seen as the nasty party

The PM lost her majority by running a single issue campaign which left Corbyn the chance to pose as the champion of ordinary people.

Howard Flight: So who’s to blame for our productivity problems? Step forward, Gordon Brown

Between 1997 and 2005, public sector spending rose from £336 billion to £517 billion a year. But its output has increased little, so its productivity has fallen dramatically.

Lewis Baston: Election gambles that worked. And those that failed – like May’s this year.

And those that never were, such as 1978, 1991 and 2007. Prime Ministers tend to make the opposite error to that of their predecessors.

Barely a third of Conservative MPs were elected before Cameron’s leadership

Such a generational shift in peacetime is remarkable, and strengthens the case for a member of a recent intake to succeed the Prime Minister.

Lewis Baston: The election suggests that the tectonic plates of British politics are shifting

The shock over the overall result has distracted us from how remarkable some of each party’s gains really were.

Farron’s support for action in Syria shows how Clegg changed the Lib Dems

The halcyon days of Charles Kennedy’s leadership offer a clear temptation to revert to the party’s old opportunist ways. Will their new, more governmental habits stick?

Let’s not get carried away. The Conservatives only won over a quarter of all potential voters.

This is the consequence of declining turnout and less support for the two main parties.

We don’t vote equally

Turnout varies wildly between constituencies. What could that mean in a close election?