Dress sense

James Forsyth (political editor of The Spectator and Mr Allegra Stratton) in his Mail On Sunday column is convinced David Cameron wants a woman as the next Chairperson of the BBC Trust. So he adds Sarah Hogg and Patience Wheatcroft to the ever-growing list of possibles.

Sarah Hogg (St Mary's Ascot and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford) competes with Marjorie Scardino on a number of fronts. A hack, on economics, for The Independent, and a broadcaster, for Channel 4 News (part of the original presentation team alongside Peter Sissions, Trevor MacDonald and Godfrey Hodgson), she went on to work in John Major's policy unit, and then became the first woman to chair a FTSE 100 company, 3i.  She had a spell as a BBC Governor earlier this century. She sits on the Lords cross-bench (whence came Lord Hall).

Patience Wheatcroft (Queen Elizabeth's Grammar and Birmingham) built on City reporting for the Mail and Times to become editor of the Sunday Telegraph, founding Retail Week along the way. She's a non-exectuive director of "wealth managers" St James Place and of Fiat. She's a Conservative life peer.

Peter Preston in The Observer offers the name of Colette Bowe, and Paddy Power's latest list include Gail Rebuck (20/1) and Ann Widdecombe (100/1). More on them later; meanwhile, if you're a bloke thinking of tossing your hat into the ring, you might want to consider the winning example of Conchita Wurst/Tom Neuwirth...