The most senior directly-elected post in Britain is now Conservative. Old Etonian Boris Johnson has, as I suggested earlier, indeed been elected Mayor of London, the first Conservative to hold that post. Boris is a classical scholar of no mean ability as well as being a master of making people underestimate him.
What I find most amazing about the result is that the incumbent Ken Livingstone managed to get out 200,000 more votes than he did last time, which is some feat, but Boris got out half a million more votes than the Conservative candidate did last time. This is, to my mind, a truly astonishing feat and it underlines that the Conservative Party is back with a vengeance.
Moreover, as the exceptionally sound Donal Blaney underlines, the party now is much more balanced between centrist and right than previously. The green tinge remains, but that is often now cover for more traditional conservative policies on crime and education, for instance.
While he has two years to turn things around, an electoral disaster as bad as John Major’s in 1997 is on the cards for Gordon Brown. Floreat Etona et floreat gens togata!