Boris ensures unbroken run of meeting prime ministers

SO another week, and lo and behold we have another new Prime Minister. Boris’s ascent to the Top Job was hardly a surprise once the Dancing Queen (what on earth was she thinking) finally succumbed - but new PMs are still a big deal. Two days in and he’s already either winding people up or inspiring them with his “make Britain great again” rhetoric.

Doesn’t seem to matter how a PM gets to be PM these days, new shoes on the doorstep of Number 10 seem to hail a new sense of optimism.

Normally the arrival of a new First Minister poses me with a problem, for I have met every Prime Minister since Mrs Thatcher and I am keen to keep that up while I can. No problem with the new incumbent though, as I have already met him! I could claim that Boris and I used to work together. It is a claim that would have slightly more merit than my boast that Andrew Strauss and I played in the same cricket team (we did, but there was a decade between us playing for it).

In my short, but thoroughly enjoyable, days at The Daily Telegraph, Boris was also on the staff. As I beavered eagerly away, desperate to impress the newsdesk, the day would be occasionally interrupted by this huge blond figure who would shuffle in and shuffle out. The next day, I would buy the paper early to see if I had got anything in, and would always be amazed that Boris age growth spurt which had just happened, so on this day was in a suit at least two sizes too small, and my pathetic attempt to grow hair like Malcolm Young had been made doubly worse by my efforts to comb in a side parting. Thank god we did not have mobile phone cameras back then.

I can still remember the sweat running down my back as Mrs T approached and, good god, said something to me. I haven’t got a clue what she said, or thank goodness how I replied, but I know I felt ready to faint as she moved on up the line.

All very different from my press conference with John Major, and my chummy meetings with my ‘mates’ Tony and Dave.

Anyway, a new PM. Let’s hope he doesn’t make a complete mess of it.