As four runners enter the final furlong of the Tory leadership race - the 1922 committee of Tory MPs is grilling Messrs Clarke, Cameron, Davis and Fox this afternoon - the frontrunner, David Cameron, today got the endorsement of the Financial Times.
Like its sister magazine the Economist (subscription needed), which backed Mr Cameron last week, the FT calls the 39-year old pretender "attractive and approachable", with a healthily "optimistic" persona, unlike the "gloomy" prognoses of rightwinger Liam Fox, the "unfocused" David Davis, or Ken Clarke, who it says has "no recognition" of the modernisation agenda.
Whether the voice of the City holds the same sway among Tories as the Daily Mail or the "Torygraph" is a moot point. It famously backed Neil Kinnock and Labour in the 1992 election.
Perhaps of more pressing relevance, More 4 News has surveyed Tories in the 50 seats where the party came closest to beating Labour - but still lost - at the May election. Candidates in those marginal seats backed Cameron by a large margin: 36% for the frontrunner, 24% for Ken Clarke, 18% for David Davis, and 12% for Liam Fox.
