So the Conservatives had their first round of leadership voting yesterday and immediately got rid of all the women. And some other geezer who no-one remembers, less voted for and was only there to avoid accusations of sexism after the first cut. Maybe politics is no place for a woman (nothing controversial in that sentence) or maybe its the ‘May effect’, I don’t know. But Andrea Leadsom, who I liked, is out. And Esther McVey is out simply because it is unacceptable in modern Britain to have a Prime Minister with a scouse accent. She looks alright but sounds like Stevie Gerrard. Had to go.

Boris was the stand out ‘winner’. But it ain’t over til the fat person of ambiguous gender sings. And now it becomes all about who gets the support from those eliminated. Because these initial eliminations are voted just by MPs. So between the 3 who are out, there are about 40 votes up for grabs for the other 7 who remain in the hat.

It’s a long process. I’m a bit bored with it already. Mainly because Boris stormed ahead with almost as many votes as the rest put together. Yet has tried to get out of a live tv debate with the other contenders. On the grounds, as my son-in-law, Tory-Boy, astutely pointed out, that Boris is his own liability. Or, to be more precise, his mouth. Because although Boris is by far the cleverest of this sorry collection, and certainly the funniest, he has a history of speaking from somewhere between his left foot and his anus. So to limit his time on tv is an exercise in risk reduction for the Johnson camp. Similarly, at his ‘launch party’ the other day, he limited the press to just 6 questions after his speech. Again, limitation of potential damage. When Boris speaks he can certainly crack you up, but just as likely he can spout something he shouldn’t be saying. As he did in Iran when allegedly pleading for jailed Zaghari-Ratcliffe but in fact inflaming her situation far worse by stating, incorrectly, that she was ‘training journalists’. Which is like pleading in someone’s defence over here by stating that they were ‘just innocently being a terrorist’. Such is the value of ‘free speech’ in totalitarian regimes.

Coming home from Tai Chi last night Sajid Javid was on the radio. A phone in. He was possibly the most underwhelming speaker I’ve heard since my last AA meeting. Ummed and aaahhh-ed and struggled to get his point across, other than in the obviously pre-prepared sound-bytes. But there again Rory Stewart is quite brilliant on the radio (where you don’t have to look at him) but scored least of all the surviving candidates. Mainly because he’s a transparently passionate Europhile and that, sadly, is not what the country needs right now.

So, with all the excitement of Transylvania versus Moldova in the women’s World Cup, (made that up; no idea who’s playing), we have the next round of voting on Monday. Even though its already looking like a long and drawn out coronation ceremony for Boris. Unless… unless… he fucks it up.

Happy Friday

A xxxx