The new zeitgeist?

[RogueTrooper]

From the story Cameron now favourite as Clarke exits in this morning's wee Gruad.

David Cameron was last night on the edge of the decisive breakthrough that could make him Conservative leader, after fellow MPs used their first ballot to oust Kenneth Clarke from the contest.

The 39-year-old shadow education secretary came within six votes of David Davis, the official frontrunner, who polled 62. But the Thatcherite Liam Fox, just five years Mr Cameron's senior, also claimed sufficient fresh momentum from his 42-vote share of the ballot, an achievement that threatens Mr Davis's position as the candidate of the right.

The tight result, which saw all 198 Tory MPs cast their vote, signalled a generational changing of the Tory guard, and means the end of Mr Clarke's ambitions as the last big beast of the Thatcher-Major era. It also raises the real possibility of defeat for yet another Tory frontrunner and the prospect of party activists being asked on December 5 to choose between Mr Cameron and Dr Fox. The bulk of Mr Clarke's votes are expected to switch to Mr Cameron as candidate of the modernisers and the left, though the ex-chancellor's concession speech refrained from immediately endorsing him.

But the rival campaigns were not letting the votes go by default. In corners, bars and by phone the struggle immediately began to woo Mr Clarke's 37 backers before the second round ballot tomorrow. Last night the former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, an also-ran in the contest who had switched to Mr Clarke, declared for Mr Cameron. "The more I have seen of him, the more I am impressed by his ability to lead," he said.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/toryleader/story/0,16473,1595395,00.html