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Boris Johnson and the ChipOx club

Not long ago Stephen Pollard took sides in the great Boris debate and concluded:

I think he is a buffoon. I simply don't buy this idea that beneath the exterior lies a piercingly sharp interior.

Now being anti-Boris has become the latest cause of the ChipOx Club - the group of former Oxford students still furious about the posh person who covered them in shaving foam in the Trinity Quad in 1984, just outside the Mickelthwaite during Woosnam week.

The great Clive has joined in, as has Tim Hames (the Suslov of the movement).

Very well. A buffoon, you say.

Well, given that the guy went to Balliol on a scholarship, became President of the Union, built a successful career in national journalism, became an extremely popular newspaper columnist, became editor of the Spectator, was a wow in that job, achieved national name recognition and got elected to Parliament, I wish we could all be as big a buffoon as he.

A new name for Hames!

I am also calling closing time on the Tim Hames middle name ballot. The Times columnist will shortly change his name by deed poll to Timothy Cromwell Hames. Thank you to all those who took part.

Vote on a new middle name for Tim Hames

It is time.

Time to give Tim Hames a new middle name.

Mr Hames, obviously having ingested too much Tabasco and ink, is offering Comment Central readers the chance to pick a middle name for him by ballot.

From an extensive list, Tim has selected 3 names suggested by readers. Now you have the chance to vote on the final one.

So, the names to choose from are...

• Cromwell
• Ford
• Stevenson

Email us at commentcentral@thetimes.co.uk with your vote.

A man of his words

Tim Hames promised to eat his words if the Republicans lost the Senate - with a dash of Tabasco. These pictures show that he is a man of the words he is eating.