Hello, from the Boris party conference

Boris Johnson Credit: PA

Boris Johnson is simultaneously the Tory Party's greatest asset and Theresa May's worst nightmare.

Like Ruth Davidson - who not very cordially detests him - he is a brilliant, funny communicator.

She probably outshines him as a politician capable of connecting with more-or-less everyone, as she showed in her tour-de-force conference speech today ("this party isn't for those at the top of the party; this party is a ladder").

But she is very clear she likes her MSP life in Edinburgh too much - and is nowhere near contemplating a move to London and Westminster.

She represents another way for the Conservative party which many in England are drawn towards. But she's clear that if they want her centrist, soft Brexit, Conservatism-for-all politics, they need someone else to front it (her one-nation chum Amber Rudd made a point of being in the hall to hear her).

So in that sense Davidson is only a threat to May because she is the real deal (make your own imaginative leap please).

And that is where Boris Johnson is a problem for May (ahem).

He's closer to the soul of his party on what Brexit should mean than either Davidson or May.

Theresa May and Boris Johnson Credit: PA

He is capable of oratory that makes politics sound like fun, rather than duty.

And he's pathologically incapable of showing loyalty to any leader - conceivably even to himself.

For the past fortnight, he has been at the back of the Brexit bus being driven by May shouting when he thinks she's going the wrong way, in a extraordinarily conspicuous but unpunished breach of collective cabinet responsibility.

So he's made the Tory conference all about himself. The largest item on the agenda - though you won't find it written down - is whether the Tory members want him to move forthwith to the driving seat.

And here is why I fear May is not quite as focussed on self preservation as she might be.

Johnson does not give his speech till last thing on Tuesday. And who follows him the next morning? She does.

It is almost as though she wants everyone to focus till then not on what she may be promising to make Britain a happier and richer place, but on whether the government would be happier and richer with him rather than her.

And the proximity of their speeches dares us all to compare and contrast. Which is either courageous, or something else.