On the up: Still it looks like the Johnson

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Meanwhile ‘boosterism’ is definitely now a thing: “Boosterism is a cool word,” a Johnson ally tells the FT’s George Parker. “I think it will stick.” He may be right. However Playbook reader Johnny Gibbs writes in to point out that boosterism was the central theme of Nobel Prize-winning author Sinclair Lewis’ satirical novel “Babbitt,” “about what might kindly be described as snake oil salesmen in 1920s America.” Oh.

strategy is working so far, on one half of the population at least. A new Times-YouGov poll puts the Tories 10 points ahead of Labour on 32 percent, up 7 points on a week ago. However the rise is almost entirely among male voters, the survey suggests. “We know Boris Johnson has a woman problem,” Labour frontbencher Cat Smith tells the paper.

Meanwhile in Downing Street: BuzzFeed’s Alex whatsapp number list Wickham has done a terrific job compiling a list of all the ongoing staffing appointments inside Johnson’s new-look No. 10. You can read them all for yourself here, complete with mini bios, but a couple of key hires to highlight yesterday are Political Secretary Danny Kruger and the first big lobby hire in the form of TalkRADIO’s Ross Kempsell. Wickham also reveals International Trade Secretary Liz Truss has poached Nerissa Chesterfield from the IEA to be her new SpAd.

More where that came from: Playbook can chuck a few more SpAd moves into the mix this morning. Former whips’ office SpAd Claire Coutinho is expected to join Rishi Sunak at the Treasury … Sonia Khan is also expected to stay on at the Treasury, with new Chancellor Sajid Javid … Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom has rehired her old SpAd Marc Pooler, but is still in need of a media adviser after Lucia Hodgson was poached by No. 10 … And Home Secretary Priti Patel has poached civil servant Hannah Guerin, who previously worked as Michael Gove’s deputy PPS at DEFRA. Guerin will work alongside Patel’s other new SpAds James Starkie and Charlotte Miller.