The Tories pick a winner

Less than six weeks ago a threadbare group of Conservative MPs, from what one might call the boarding-school wing of the party, assembled in a small, air-conditioned room in Portcullis House, Westminster. Not everyone was punctual. The Commons was deep in recess.

The fifth Test against Australia was flickering on television sets around London SW1, Mark Nicholas saying, ‘there’s still plenty of time in this game’. But was there? September-heavy houseflies buzzed against window panes as the team supporting David Cameron’s bid for the Tory leadership excavated their ear wax and pondered a different sort of leader — in the Times. Not only had the recent article praised David Davis as ‘an attractive prospect’ but it had also said that Mr Cameron was ‘clearly failing to persuade sufficient numbers that his time has come’. Bloody Times. Tacking to the breeze as ever. ‘I thought Michael [Gove] was going to square them,’ complained one Cameron fancier.