Well well well. . When I urged bloggers to draft Boris little did I believe that it would actually happen.
David Cameron must be wondering whether to cheer or cry. He wanted a high-profile, high-octane, fun-packed challenge to Ken but you can have too much of a good thing. If Boris is selected by his party - remember that he does have to win a primary before he becomes the Tory candidate - that high-profile, high-octane, fun-packed challenge would compete daily with anything Team Cameron puts out to promote their man.
Ever since Boris floated the idea - and it was his idea - senior Tories have mused on whether to encourage or discourage him. Will it, they pondered, assist efforts to convince voters that the Tories are a serious alternative government or reinforce Gordon Brown's campaign to convince people that they are out of touch and anything but serious? Having established an open system they could neither pick him nor stop him.
Belfast will witness a moment in British constitutional history today. Though the event is a this is not another development in the "peace process".
The significance of today's get together comes not from the presence of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness as first and deputy first ministers (striking though that still is). Nor does it come from the presence of Bertie Ahern, the newly re-elected Irish Taoiseach (striking though that is too).
It's the representation of the other nations of Britain which makes this a historic meeting. You see what's really striking about it is that both Scotland and Wales are being represented by nationalist politicians. The SNP's Alex Salmond is there as first minister of Scotland and joining him is Plaid Cymru's Ieuan Wyn Jones the new deputy first minister of Wales filling in for Labour's Rhodri Morgan who's unwell.
For the first time in British history Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are governed by parties which are demanding more powers for their own elected parliaments or assemblies and who will, at times, unite to oppose Whitehall's diktats.
Already politics has begun to feature arguments about why voters in this or that part of the UK get something which others are denied. Add to that the presence of Gordon Brown as the first Scot to govern the UK since devolution and it's clear that the constitutional question will be a major feature of British politics for many years to come.
PS: Lest I appear exclusivist can I point out that also attending today are Senator Frank Walker, chief minister of Jersey; Stuart Falla, deputy chief minister of Guernsey and James Anthony Brown on behalf of the Isle of Man.
