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Month: August 2009

Who’ll Bell be backing in the Bedford by-election?

Who’ll Bell be backing in the Bedford by-election?

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Could his intervention thwart the Tories? Probably the biggest election, certainly in terms of the number of voters involved, in the UK before the general election takes place in Bedford in October when there’s a by-election for the post of elected mayor. This follows the death a fortnight ago of the union activist turned multi-millionaire media entrepreneur, Frank Branston, who had held the position since it was created six years ago. What’s interesting is that he was an independent who…

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Megrahi: The battle of the polls continues

Megrahi: The battle of the polls continues

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Reuters MORI has Scots more evenly split Just trying to keep up with the Scottish polls on Megrahi is getting to be quite difficult and there has been another one overnight – by MORI for the Reuters news agency. This found that 40% of Scots were in favour of the decision with 47% opposed – so numbers that are more sympathetic to the SNP position than the ICM poll reported earlier. It’s hard to compare one poll with another because…

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Poll gloom for the SNP AND Gordon over Megrahi

Poll gloom for the SNP AND Gordon over Megrahi

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BBC News Scotland ICM suggests both have been damaged Only a few days ago I was bemoaning the fact that there did not seem to be any polls of Scottish opinion on the release of Megrahi – the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing and murder of 270 people. Well this evening we have a second with strong suggestions that there might be another one this weekend. The survey is by ICM for the BBC and is of 1,005 people…

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How much are tax-payers funding political parties already?

How much are tax-payers funding political parties already?

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BBC IPlayer Michael Crick’s programme is a must listen I’ve just picked up on BBC IPlayer this great Radio 4 investigation by Michael Crick on the funding of political parties and the rise of what he calls “The Political Club”. The programme blurb goes: “Michael Crick reveals how politicians are increasingly becoming a professionalised and separate class, who use their status to channel taxpayers’ money into the coffers of their parties. The recent scandal over MPs’ expenses has revealed how…

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Will 2010 be the year of “Double Tactical Unwind”?

Will 2010 be the year of “Double Tactical Unwind”?

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Could the tactical switchers of ’97 now go straight to the Tories? One of aspects of the electorate that both the YouGov Scottish poll and this week’s GB survey from Angus-Reid have shown is the very distinctive approach to the Lockerbie bomber release by Lib Dem voters. This is symptomatic I believe of their approach to politics generally and why what they think and do at elections can have a disproportionate impact at general elections. We saw that in 1997…

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Can Brown take hope from Major in 1992?

Can Brown take hope from Major in 1992?

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Could the polls be as wrong now as they were then? If there is one precedent that could provide some hope for Brown Central it is John Major’s surprise victory in the general election of April 9th 1992. In the year or so beforehand the Tory government’s by-election performance was even worse than Labour’s at the moment and with the exception of one or two polls all the pollsters were pointing to a dead heat in vote numbers as the…

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Does this mean that Mandy is now out of the race?

Does this mean that Mandy is now out of the race?

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BBC News What’s the story behind this change? All the speculation that Peter Mandelson might be thinking of running for the Labour leadership was sparked off by the planned changes in the law to allow life peers to resign and so stand for election to the commons. Today’s news mean that this is now not possible. I would love to know that the story is behind this change. Mike Smithson

Majority of Scots think the release was wrong – YouGov

Majority of Scots think the release was wrong – YouGov

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Survey finds SNP Holyrood support down 5 points Opinion polls confined to just Scotland are rare things indeed and according to UKPollingReport there have only been two this year – one by YouGov for the Sunday Times last January. UPDATE – the last Scottish YouGov poll was in June. This morning the Daily Mail is carrying details of a new YouGov Scottish poll it commissioned following last week’s controversial release of Megrahi – the man convicted for the Lockerbie bombing….

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