Leading article: Kingdom come

But, all the same, David Cameron's campaign team will not welcome today's announcement by Debrett's, that authority on all things aristocratic, that their candidate, the overwhelming favourite to win the Tory leadership contest tomorrow, is related to the Royal Family. Mr Cameron, it turns out, is the great-great-great-great-great grandson of King William IV.

Team Cameron have had enough trouble throughout this campaign playing down the fact that their man attended a certain public school located near Slough. But now it emerges that he is virtually blue-blooded! Not very "man of the people". Not very modernising. Britain has spent much of the past three centuries quietly neutering its monarchy. Putting political power back in a remote branch of the House of Hanover is unlikely to appeal.

But could Mr Cameron turn this to his advantage? Surely time to deploy some of those PR skills honed at Carlton TV.

OK, so the Queen is Mr Cameron's fifth cousin twice removed. But that means when he makes it to 10 Downing St, those weekly trips to the Palace will be more like family visits. This shows Mr Cameron's heroic commitment to the principle of maintaining a good "work-life balance". What could be more refreshingly modernising than that? Crisis over.