Not only is Michael Howard the first Jewish Conservative leader since Disraeli, he is also the first Welshman ever to lead the Tories.

But before you get carried away by Howard, take a peek at Peter Hitchens lovely bitter article about him. A few snippets to wet your appetite: Bah, humbug. The Tory Party currently resembles a cage in which several savage small animals are kept in order only by the threat that the pet shop owner will drown the lot of them if they succumb to the biting and gouging that they instinctively long to do ... Mr Howard has declared that he will 'lead from the centre', which means he will offer no real challenge to this anti-British, politically correct regime of penal taxation, no serious opposition to the Labour policy of winking at mass illegal immigration, no serious thinking about crime and disorder, no discussion of leaving the oppressive EU, no help for the married family, no radical reform for the worst education system in Europe.

The last remaining British Military Medal winner is still alive at 104 (despite being pronounced dead by unaware veteran associations a few years ago). Lance Corporal James Lovell lied about his age to enlist in 1915 and fought at the Somme.