Ambition should be made of sterner stuff

Few writers can make a silly season story read like official history, so it’s worth drifting behind the Times’ paywall to read Rachel Sylvester on Boris and Dave’s mutual emnity. It is no secret that BoJo and DC are united in rivalry, but Sylvester adds a second dimension with insider quotations – a mix of arch witticisms and savage partisanship. Here are several of many from today’s column:

‘Most people at Westminster assume that Boris — compared by one of his editors to Marilyn Monroe, “another egomaniacal blonde” — still harbours ambitions to lead his party. As a boy he used to declare that when he grew up he wanted to be “world king”, so Tory leader would at least be a step on the ladder. Even as the results were coming in on election night, and Conservative high command was starting to panic about the lack of an overall majority, Boris’s sister Rachel Johnson tweeted merrily: “It’s all gone tits up — call for Boris!” A minister loyal to Mr Cameron says: “He wouldn’t be welcome back in Parliament.