scale of the task that Johnson, or any other leader, will face. Against this backdrop, personal ratings may not count for very much. It has not won one comfortably for 25 years. It couldn't win on a rightwing platform in 2001 or in 2005. It couldn't win in 2010, having attempted to detoxify its brand and pitch to the centre ground instead. When was the last time Labour won an election without having to sell out their core principles (clause IV anybody)? Boris Johnson would obliterate the likes of Ed Miliband. Labour picked the wrong candidate. Should have been his brother. I wasn't surprised to discover that Boris is the most respected politician in the country, and is the only one to pull ahead of Margaret Thatcher. We need a figure like him who, similarly to Thatcher, is determined to govern on behalf of Brits across all socio-economic groups, and end the division that has reared its ugly head again across this country over the past 20 years. We've gone 30 years without a new Thatcher surfacing. It looks like one finally has. Frankly, the nation has been crying out for it. Surley this should be " The Tories couldn't win the 2010 election". Standfirsts are in normal English, not headline English. In headline English this could have been "Tories couldn't win 2010 election" (though sounding a bit out of date). As it stands , the sentence implies Tories as a group, as a class of people. Your whole analysis