What is it about Labour’s friends in the North? Even when things are going well for a Prime Minister a Wednesday morning is probably not the best of times to be around Number 10. Over-shadowing everything when parliament is in session is Prime Minister’s Questions – the weekly ritual that has to be surmounted and where the post-holder can only guess at what he is likely to be asked. Gordon’s usual day, we are told, starts very early with a…
Could supporting Cruddas be a way showing unease about Brown? My nomination for Iain Dale’s political blogger of the year (won incidentally by Iain Dale himself – funny that given he was the promoter and vote counter) was Paul Linford. To my mind Paul provides the best insights into Labour party matters and this evening he speculates about who would become deputy leader if Harriet finds she cannot carry on because of the donation scandal. Clearly Harman would be out…
Will Gord’s actions contain the damage Another day and another affair that Gordon has had to answer questions on – this time not just about himself but also including his deputy, Harriet Harman who also benefited from the Durham donor. It is had to see what else he could say today even though the move will add further to Labour’s financial problems. But how can he and his party break out of this downward spiral of terrible stories? What can…
Is the Sun right to call it “Labour’s Black Monday”? There’s a six letter word that figures prominently in a number of the papers this morning that could be very dangerous for Labour and Gordon. It’s “SLEAZE” – a description that in the 1992-1997 Tory government seemed to get attached to almost everything. It became almost a short-hand and was very difficult for the party to cast off. In fact it’s probably taken it a decade and a half to…
Labour drop to an amazing 27% On the day that Labour’s general secretary had to resign over donation handling news is coming through of another terrible polling blow to Brown and his party. According to Iain Dale the November survey by ComRes for tomorrow’s Independent has these figures with comparisons on a month ago – CON 40% (-1): LAB 27% (-6): LD 18% (+2) Needless to say this is the biggest Tory lead that’s been recorded by ComRes ever. Back…
What’s going to happen in the end month poll rush? It’s been frustrating weekend for Lib Dem poll watchers keen to see if their recovery is continuing. First we had the confusion in the Guardian on Saturday over the size of their share. Then we had yesterday’s BPIX poll in the MoS which failed to mention the Lib Dem total. I haven’t been able to solve the latter but the boss of ICM, Nick Sparrow, has emailed me about his…
Is it worth betting that Labour will have another leader? It’s Monday and that means it’s the day of the Guardian column of Jackie Ashley – who for a long time has been one of Brown’s most enthusiastic media cheer leaders. And this morning, as she tries to assess the political damage that Gordon has suffered in the past few weeks, she touches on what has not really been debated – could he go BEFORE the general election? Ashley writes:“..For…
Why I’m scaling back on my “Tory buy” position As far as I can see there is only one voting intention poll this morning and that is from the non-British Polling Council registered BPIX in the Mail on Sunday Frustratingly the only figures available online are a CON-LAB split of 40%-35% with no information about the Lib Dems. The pollster found there was a 37%-37% split when it asked how respondents would vote if Tony Blair was still Labour leader….