"Luckily one person who fits most of the criteria [to be Tory Prime Minister] will enter parliament at the next election. ... His name is Michael Gove"

Although I will have the doubtful privilege of being able to vote for Mr Gove at the General Election, I really cannot see him as a potential PM. Among other things he's Scottish and clever, and I have a hunch that in a few years from now those chararcteristics won't be seen as positives. Think Welsh. Think windbag.

The first time I ever read Michael Gove, I started looking for more of his work. I missed him when The Times drew its skirts aside and made itself unavailable, without subscription, to overseas readers. (I guess not too many overseas readers were panting to subscribe, so they've let us back in to most of the site, free.)

I always found Boris Johnson a bit creepy. I predict he will cross the floor.

That Boris Johnson has been the Tories star turn during the last few years shows how low they have sunk. He plays the amiable toff well enough on comedy shows but but translated into politics he simply becomes a circus act. Apparently he's held the Culture, Media & Sport portfolio for the last few years. I can't recall a single comment from him on any of these matters.

His soft-left journalism is also a yawn-o-rama.

His true home is at the feet of the current occupant of the equally insincere, equally self-congratulatory current occupant of No 10.

Michael Gove looks and sounds like a strangulated Scotch school swot: John Redwood without the charm. Hardly the stuff to give the troops when the Tories are eight points adrift of NuLab in the latest polls.

The funny thing is that apart from "family person", Portillo's ideal Conservative leader sounds just like Portillo. Yet he kept bottling it, and is now relegating himself to just another sideline snipership (and with rather a stiff, queasy manner) on the idiot's lantern and in the unpopular press.

British people forgive you a lot for being daft and deceitful if you make them laugh. Boris will be back.

If I were Michael Gove, I would be seriously worried about getting Michael Portillo's backing. After all, Portillo has to date shown a woeful sense of political judgment and timing.

Portillo's article also underemphasises a key point about Condoleeza Rice: she is a staggeringly talented and charismatic women. She is the living embodiment of meritocracy and would be appalled to be promoted because of the colour of her skin or her gender. Moreover, she stands head and shoulders above the likes of Paul Boateng and Theresa May.

If the Republicans have any sense, they should be actively grooming Rice for the Presidency next time around. The sound of Hillary's Clinton's Goose being cooked will then be quite delightful.

If I could hand-pick any individual in this country to be Prime Minister, it would be Gove. I agree with him on simply everything.

Do you think Portillo had heard about this before he wrote his article?

Janan - I'm with you. And I'll bet millions of other people.

"If the Republicans have any sense, they should be actively grooming Rice for the Presidency next time around." Don't worry, Michael McGowan. The Republican establishment has talked of little else for the last four years, and now the President is in his second term, the establishment will be getting their final plans into place. If you read her biography, you'll see her entire family have been achievers for about five generations. (Her mother was a musician and created her name from an Italian musical term for 'with sweetness'.)

The only fear is, she may not have any interest in standing. She's an academic and has never stood for elected office, not even a school board, which is a fair indication that she has no interest in the scrum of politics. I suspect she has an active distaste for glad-handing.

She was the provost of the intellectually elite Stanford University when she first met Bush and Cheyney at a meeting convened on the Stanford campus by George Schulz. Bush recognised her brilliance on the spot and knew immediately that he wanted her in his inner circle of advisors. To mention her in the same breath as pedestrian nonentities like Boatang and May is to misapprehend Rice's overwhelmingly superior fire power and real accomplishments.

I'm betting that if Condi runs, Hillary will not. The black vote and that would evaporate for ol' Hill in the presence of Condoleezza Rice. So there goes a huge whack of the Democratic vote. And the Republican grass roots adore her. Hillary would have to postpone her ambitions yet again, and they'd have to run a disposable no-hoper against her.

I think the reason Portaloo doesn't like Boris Johnson can be traced back to a 1999 issue of the Spectator in which Michael Portillo contributed an article on Wagner.

The cover story was by Ivan Massow and was headlined 'Its Gay Time for the Tories' and illustrated by a pink version of the Tories torch logo. Underneath it had 'Michael Portillo on Wagner' and in the corner of the cover it said 'Neil Tennant's Diary'. It was before Portillo had come out publicly with his gay past but everyone had heard the rumours, and was quite clearly a piss take of Portillo.

Fascinating stuff, Ross, but was BJ already in the chair at the Speccy? He took over some time in 1999.

BTW, it's not generally known that as a lad Boris was sacked from the Times by Charlie Wilson for, ahem, embellishing a quote and spent some time in the outer darkness of Wolverhampton on the Express & Star. So this isn't the first time he's had trouble distinguishing the actualite from the pyramid of piffle.

BTW, it's not generally known that as a lad Boris was sacked from the Times by Charlie Wilson for, ahem, embellishing a quote and spent some time in the outer darkness of Wolverhampton on the Express & Star.

Huh? All of this is available on the man's official website, as well as within the bios contained in his books. It's hardly a state secret.

FWIW, I have encountered Michael Gove on several occasions and always found him remarkably friendly. He doesn't need false charm.

I quite like Gove, but he really is a buffoon. Unlike Johnson, he hasn't made a career of his buffonery, intentionally at least.

I remember Gove, a year or two after his Oxford Union days, in some sort of bargain basement TW3 (with David Baddiel) interviewing Peter Bottomley. Half way through the interview, Bottomley took Gove's clipboard away, chastising him for knowing so little about the subject he was questioning him on, that he would not be able to function without his briefing notes.

It was cruel and unnecessary, but it did make me larf.

I find it increasingly hard what to think about any of them. Hardly anyone in the Tory party shines out at the moment. At least people knew Boris and he can be very amusing. But having said that you can't have it both ways and he does seem to lack gravitas. Gove is on the other hand perhaps a bit too dry. But why should we listen to Portillo as he does not appear to have done the Tories too many favours despite being given a gift of a seat.

Returning to Boris, I think the Speccie has been giving a bit too much space to wets of late. Perhaps it will change with Neil in as CEO.

Verity - my preferred choice for the GOP nomination in 2008 is Jeb Bush. The man is a class act. There is a group of about ten outstanding and young-ish governors in America who are tipped for great things (Owens, Sanford, Granholm, etc) but Jeb is the best of the lot. His approval rating is roughly where his brother's was after 9/11, and it was high even before the floods. He is also very policy-literate and would be more fiscally conservative than GWB.

He is also a signatory of the Project for the New American Century, so we don't have to worry about his foreign policy credentials.

He is socially conservative enough to keep the GOP base happy (unlike Giuliani maybe - though he would also be a fine candidate) but to a degree that would alienate the soft GOP vote.

I know he has ruled himself out, but I hope he changes his mind.

Janan, I would not disagree with you about Jeb Bush, but I think the cries of "Bush Dynasty! Bush Dynasty! We fought the War of Independence to get away from royalty!!!!" by hysterical Dimocrats (who would have been catatonic with joy if Bobby Kennedy hadn't been killed and had gone on to win the presidency, followed by Teddy, then John Jr).

He would also have going for him the fact that he is totally bilingual (as is GWB, I believe) and has a Mexican wife and half-Mexican children, so he would get the illegal immigrant vote (if they can legally get drivers' licences, why not voting ballots?).

Given that by the end of Bush's second term, voters may be ready for a change just for the hell of it, I think they will need someone with universal appeal to beat the Hilldebeest and Condi has it. It would be wonderful to have a third Republican victory, but, despite his many very fine qualities, I think there are elements, mentioned above, that would be very difficult for him to overcome. I think the Dimocrats could work up enough hysteria about the presidence of the United States not belonging to one family to build up a resistance. I could be wrong, and I'd feel perfectly confident if Jeb Bush were president of the United States, but I just don't see it.

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