Circle of Chums

There are various reasons why Alan Duncan won't be the next Tory leader. But his fate was sealed by the endorsement of Andrew Sullivan:

A GAY TORY LEADER? No, it won't happen. My old friend Alan Duncan knows he has a very distant chance.

Because there is a Curse of Sully: any Tory politician who receives the prefix "my old friend" goes down in flames. Consider the record. Boris Johnson:

An old friend, Boris Johnson, whom I remember as a young turk in the Oxford Union, is now a very grand personage in British culture.

Subsequently, Boris had a very messy affair with Petronella Wyatt disintegrate in full tabloid view. William Hague, former Tory leader:

Meanwhile, in Britain, my old friend William Hague has, by all accounts, got off to a flying start in the election campaign. Vowing to cut taxes, crack down on illegal asylum seekers, keep the pound, and resist liberal elites, Hague is widely predicted to lose terribly. Why am I not so sure?

Tony Blair didn't seem too worried back then and once again, the Sage of South Godstone (term property of Sullywatch) had struck out. But he wasn't finished:

My friend Nick Boles is running for parliament in the county I grew up in.

This was with reference to the most recent election for which we provided some context here, and anyway, Nick lost, although to be fair, very narrowly. Sully has a Britpop like ability to have collected a large group of chums over the years. But Damon Albarn's circle is a tad more successful than Sully's.