Like the muscle bound replacements waiting to come on in a Rugby match a number of Tory reserves are poised to jump into the fray. If Dave can't sort out the opinion polls, which basically means getting the economy moving, there could be a challenge before the next election - although this is still quite unlikely.
So who is in the front row - well actually its hard to imagine a less frightening bunch
The leadership contenders
Liam Fox
The Scottish born Somerset MP and former doctor who had a ministerial spell at Defence, before proving that he has uncommonly poor judgement. When it transpired that he let his trusted 'friend', a bloke called (Dim) Witty, have access to defence procurement contracts Liam was forced him out of the Cabinet. Unable to push though spending cuts a defence he was not missed. A flag waver for the hard right he has stood for the party leadership on a number of occasions and has only managed to attracted a hand full of supporters. He may have more support now as the 2010 election probably doubled the number of unattractively right wing MPs.
David Davis
Poor old David, once a 'shoe-in' for party leader until Michael Howard gave Dave some leeway to build support. His main appeal for the Tories was that fact he had regional accent, although nobody knows where the accent comes from! Subsequently he famously blew it in the final leadership show down, where Dave made a superb speech without notes while Davis looked wooden and short of ideas. Soon after this he shot himself in the other foot by letting himself come under the spell of the pretty but flaky Shami Chakrabarti (civil liberties campaigner) and resigned his seat to fight a bi-election on a platform he didn't understand and no one cared about. This extraordinary mis-judgement has sealed his fate and his reputation as a flawed and failed politician.
Adam Afriyie
The rabble rouser from Totting who made a multi-million pound fortune from businesses that include an operation employing hundreds of young writers to churn out thousands of news stories a day - not much depth here then. He has made the mistake of putting his head above the parapet two or three years to soon.
He looks a bit like Obama, but appears to have the political nous of Fred Karno. We can safely predict a future of dull obscurity for Adam. Meanwhile he is spending his time lunching the lunatic fringe of the Tory Party to garner support - pretty sure this will give him an unpleasant cocktail of heartburn and nausea.
The others
Gove, Boris, and Hunt are the serious contenders (Osborne has shot his bolt by being the worst Chancellor since Tony Barber) but Dave will keep these guys close. They all have too much to lose by precipitating a coup and they are bright enough to avoid the role Heseltine played when John Major got the job. Importantly they are all young enough to wait their turn, although it should be a good scrap when the time is ripe, they might form the Second Triumvirate and deal with Afriyie at Phillipi.
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