By Tim Montgomerie
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Top 100 lists of influential people probably shouldn't be taken too seriously but they still fascinate us. Total Politics has today published its list of top 100 journalists and GQ has just published its annual list of the 100 most influential men...

Last year, controversially, George Osborne was number 1 in GQ's list - ahead of the PM. He slips to number 8 this year. Is he being punished for that jokey speech about masturbation? Taking the Chancellor's place at the top of the tree is Boris Johnson. Here are the notables from the world of politics...

1 Boris Johnson, GQ doesn't really explain why he's moreinfluential than Cameron but do say this... "the prime minister tries to guess how high. When Boris comes back from holiday, as he did during the London riots, David Cameron comes back. When Boris says he’s wearing a morning suit to the royal wedding, Cameron performs an embarrassing sartorial U-turn."

2 David Cameron

3 Jeremy Heywood, Permanent Secretary at Number 10 and according to GQ "Cameron trusts his judgement and experience more than that of his political appointees".

5 Andrew Cooper, the PM's pollster and more important than the Chancellor according to GQ!

8 George Osborne, was number one last year. Odd that he's dropped so much. Very odd.

10 Paul Dacre, Editor of the Daily Mail, the top journalist in ConHome's RightList.

13 Lord Coe of 2012

14 Danny Finkelstein, columnist and now the Chairman of Policy Exchange

15 Michael Gove, the Daily Mail's new hero

16 Ed Balls

18 Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and more influential than Nick Clegg according to GQ

21 Dominic Mohan, Editor of The Sun

26 Robert Chote, head of the Office of Budget Responsibility

28 Paul Staines and Harry Cole, Guido Fawkes blog

30 Jeremy Hunt

34 Nick Clegg, why exactly is the Deputy PM thought to be less influential than Andrew Cooper?

43 Iain Duncan Smith

47 James Harding, Editor of The Times

48 Oliver Letwin and Francis Maude, jointly listed these two are the workhorses of the Coalition from within the Cabinet Office

56 Tony Gallagher, Editor of The Telegraph

59 Ed Miliband, 33 places BELOW Ed Balls

62 Steve Hilton, the PM's guru who, according to yesterday's Mail on Sunday, has cooled on global warming

69 Nick Boles MP, "gave birth to the Tory party’s modernisation movement."

70 Matthew d'Ancona, columnist

88 Tim Luke, Business advisor to David Cameron (and old Etonian schoolmate)

97 Julian Fellowes, Tory peer and creator of ITV's Downton Abbey.

GQ arrives in newsagents on Thursday.