Call Me Dave sports a new look in Essex

A VERY modern haircut for a very modern leader - Call Me Dave wowed 240 Conservatives at a constituency dinner in Chelmsford last night, sporting a parting straight down the middle.

Cost: £10. A bargain indeed in London.

If he'd worn a wig or exposed a sudden hair loss, the effect would have been the same. Tory activists in Chelmsford firmly believed the UK's next Prime Minister - or Prime Minister the one after if Labour gets a chronic case of the jitters and ditches Bottler - was standing before them,. relxed, microphone in hand, happily posing for mobile phone photos and doing everything he should to impress on the faithful that they should take nothing for granted.

But Call Me Dave has the sort of magnetic personality which is capable of attracting support from across the political spectrum. Labour switchers to the Conservatives helped them to a famous by-election victory in Crewe & Nantwich. Labour's fears seem well founded indeed