Boris Johnson ahead by a nose and a full head of blond hair

No real surprise after the first ballot of Conservative MPs to find that Boris Johnson has polled many more votes than any of his rivals for the premiership of this great country or should I sadly say once-great country. He is miles ahead. I personally believe it's going to stay that way over the next few rounds and that the majority of the 160,000 Tory Party members who are allowed to cast their vote in the final round will go along with the Boris choice. However, it's fascinating to see how the other candidates have done. The backers of the different individuals have all been speaking up for their man. Yes I'm afraid it's now all men. The only two women candidates, Andrea Leadsom and Esther McVey, have been eliminated in the first round, not getting enough votes to go on to the second round. So there won't be a third female prime minister, not this time anyway. It's back to chaps in charge! Whether that's a good thing for the country we will have to see. Anyway, Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, is second in the polling followed by Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary who so desperately wants to be PM - as does his wife Sarah Vine, stalwart Daily Mail columnist (for her husband to be PM!!). The rest are also rans although I suspect Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, and possibly Rory Stewart, the International Development Secretary, will improve their chances in the next round by scooping up the votes from the MPs who, in the first round, had gone for Andrea Leadsom, Esther McVey and Mark "Who?" Harper. But right now Boris must be feeling pretty confident of getting the keys to Number 10, and thinking to himself: "Oh my goodness, what a topsy turvy world, there I was not that long ago writing entertaining tosh about Europe as Brussels correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, and now here I am on the verge of becoming prime minister. And my former friend and former supporter Michael Gove came third!!" Gove will have a lot of work to do to beat Boris now. But Jeremy Hunt who is quite a pleasing looking bloke and has a Japanese or is it Chinese wife (he famously got it wrong once), while far behind Boris, must still think he is in with a good chance. Watch out for Hunt being terribly statesmanlike over the next few weeks. If he wants to get nasty he might even point out that when Boris was foreign secretary he only managed to upset people and never really acted in a statesmanlike manner. Boris was not a good foreign secretary but he is promising everyone that he will be a very good prime minister. In the end it's going to be a Boris/Hunt race. Boris has the advantage because everyone calls Boris Boris while everyone calls Hunt Hunt!