Open thread
Picture: Lembit Opik’s post defeat interview on election night. I thought that this was one of the most gracious of the night. If Lembit could stop playing the fool he would be quite a formidable politician. – MS
Holiday arrangements on the site
It will mostly be open threads In a few hours time we’ll be heading for Portsmouth to take the 24 hour car ferry to Santander. During my time away PB will not operate as normal. I might pen the occasional piece but won’t be following the ongoing news narrative. I have no idea what the internet connectivity will be like at our holiday cottage over-looking the Minho river on the Spanish-Portugese border. There are some guest slots ready and members…
Are we underestimating Oona’s chances?
Can she really beat Ken AND then Boris? I’ve been taken to task by a couple of people within London Labour for my contention in several recent posts that Ken Livingstone is a near certainty in this summer’s race for the party nomination to take on Boris in the next London mayoral election. This will be voted on by individual party members and trade union levy payers in September’s postal ballot that will run alongside the Labour leader ship election…
Were we mugs to think there’d be a big VAT rebellion?
Can we now rule out a second 2010 election? In spite of all the pre-VAT vote speculation only two Lib Dems MPs voted with the “Noes” in last night’s commons division on the plan to increase the rate to 20%, outlined in last week’s budget and the measure went through with a majority of 76. Judging by some of the pre-event build-up this rebellion was much smaller than was being suggested and, no doubt, both Clegg and Cameron will breathe…
Lib Dems drop to 18 percent with ComRes
Fieldwork Pollster/publication CON LAB LD 25-27 June ComRes / The Independent 40 31 18 24-25 June ICM/Sunday Telegraph 41 35 16 24-25 June YouGov / Sunday Times 43 36 16 22-23 June YouGov / Sun 42 34 17 20-21 June YouGov / Sun 41 33 18 18-20 June ICM / The Guardian 39 31 21 18-20 June Ipsos MORI/Reuter 39 31 19 17-18 June YouGov / Sunday Times 39 34 19 16-17 June ComRes / Indy on Sunday 36 30…
Shouldn’t Gordon now resign his seat?
Is his continued absence becoming an issue? When Harriet Harman suggested to Cameron in the commons this afternoon that he ought to give his predecessor some credit for the work he had done with the G20 the PM had a sharp response. “I’d be delighted to, if he could be bothered to turn up to this House†For the continued absence of the former Prime Minister is being increasingly noticed and becoming an issue. For his own sake, surely, he…
How does Labour deal with a popular George Osborne?
Are incapacity benefits the new battle-ground? While so many were, it seems, watching the football or discussing the aftermath, the chancellor was giving more details of his plan to attack the country’s massive welfare bill in order to find savings. This has made the front pages of only three of the papers but the scale of his plans is enormous. The idea is to protect as much departmental spending as possible by trying to find big cuts in the £190bn…
Exactly three years ago today…..
Gordon became Prime Minister..