Boris Johnson is the man. At least we'd have an entertaining opposition, and he'd probably have the sense of humour enough to pop up unexpectedly to the Left of Tony Blair, which wouldn't be at all hard. In fact at the present rate of going, I can imagine the Tory party heading Right, and still ending up on the Left of Tonyt.

I was particularly taken by young Boris when, after a night of Tories crashing to ruin all over the place, he told the people ghathered for the declaration; "Go back to your homes, and prepare for breakfast." (A reference to a previous Liberal leader who had told his party conference "Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government" - for Americans, that is a bit like Ralph Nader saying the same thing.) Of course Boris had just won his seat when he said that, and was probably feeling relatively cheerful.