None of what follows is impossible and, if there is a common thread, it is the self-interest of MPs in avoiding an election before leaving the EU.
Plus: Sympathy for the Downing Street SpAds. The case for chemical castration. And: my interviews with the Tory leadership candidates.
Stewart comes under fierce criticism as candidates float Northern Irish proposals; Scottish Tories’ campaign against Johnson peters out; and more.
Incrementalism might be the only way through Brexit. Gove appears to be toying with this very idea.
Amongst the hopefuls, he fares best on account of his competence, his ability to handle Brexit, manage the economy and unite the country.
They are chosen not from a factional or ideological standpoint, but from what I see while doing the job of Mayor.
That means easing onerous planning restrictions and ending George Osborne’s misguided crackdown on buy-to-let landlords.
Any candidate who focuses solely on leaving the EU will hit a brick wall with the Parliamentary Party.
Plus: My interviews with the Conservative leadership candidates – and, no, I haven’t a clue who will win.
Also: Welsh and Scottish Labour throw their weight behind EU referendum re-run after poll drubbing; UUP and Sinn Fein leaders in trouble.
Campaigning through policy might be effective, but each promise made by a leadership candidate with little time for thought or research is a hostage to fortune.
The first-past-the-post system is capricious. It protects you until all of sudden, it eliminates you. Ask Scottish Labour.
Plus a sixth, less formal, question: are they ridiculous?
Ken Clarke summed it up recently when he argued that there was now no chance of Britain being a stable member of the EU.
So in short, talk up the country, listen to the ‘somewheres’ outside the Westminster bubble – and cut taxes.