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Month: November 2010

Will bribes of free chocolate attract by-election volunteers?

Will bribes of free chocolate attract by-election volunteers?

Is Labour having problems getting phone canvassers for Old & Sad? While surfing this afternoon while trying to find what the main parties are doing in Old & Sad I came across the above on an official Labour site – an appeal to recruit volunteer telephone canvassers in order to get the message out. What struck me as odd was the illustration, a basket of assorted chocolate bars, and the secondary headline – “… we’re giving campaign callers free chocolate”….

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How will voters regard a pre-Christmas by-election?

How will voters regard a pre-Christmas by-election?

Wikipedia Will it be down to who is best at fighting in the dark? The Old & Sad by election has been put on one side as everybody waits for the judges to give their verdict on Woolas’s appeal for a judicial review. That’s expected during the coming week and the verdict could trigger off the process in the commons of calling the by election. Dates being talked about are December 16th and even December 23rd when the hours of…

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Was this the year things didn’t happen as planned?

Was this the year things didn’t happen as planned?

Are Ed’s problems because he didn’t expect to win? In the next few weeks there’ll be a lot of look-backs on the extraordinary political developments that have marked 2010. A year ago it looked like David Cameron was all set to win an overall majority in the ensuing general election and in the Labour election that would inevitably follow the elder Miliband brother, David, would become Labour leader. Well if the general election and what happened afterwards, the creation of…

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53 new peers created! Isn’t this getting ridiculous?

53 new peers created! Isn’t this getting ridiculous?

BBC The big political news this morning is that there’s been a massive expansion of the house of lords today with a wapping 53 new peers created. This is all part of the measures to boost the coalition in the upper house where Labour has had the most votes. I despair that such a measure is felt necessary. Why should a critical part of the legislative process be chosen by patronage? Quite a few of the latest names failed in…

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Is Lord Young’s gaffe worse than the Liam Byrne letter?

Is Lord Young’s gaffe worse than the Liam Byrne letter?

Sky News Will it be chucked back at the Tories for years to come? What a 24 hours it’s been for top Tory advisor and former cabinet minister, Lord Young. Yesterday he was waking up to the coverage of the Spectator “Parliamentarian of the Year Awards” when he pulled off the honour of being the “Peer of the Year”. This morning he’s in the doghouse and after having to eat humble pie following his comments to the Telegraph that the…

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Should PB have its own polling average?

Should PB have its own polling average?

Poll/publication Date CON % LAB % LD % YouGov/Sun 17/11/10 40 40 11 Ipsos-MORI/Reuters 14/11/10 36 39 14 ComRes/Independent 30/10/10 35 37 16 Angus Reid/ 28/10/10 35 37 15 Populus/Times 24/10/10 37 38 15 ICM/Guardian 24/10/10 39 36 16 As regulars will know I have always been strongly against polling averages. However I am coming to a view that we do need something which provides an indicator of the broad trend by taking the last survey from each of the…

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Will it be the council cuts that hurt the coalition most?

Will it be the council cuts that hurt the coalition most?

HenryG looks at where the political battle-grounds will be Over the years I’ve noticed that one of the biggest misconceptions the public have is that their council services are funded almost entirely by the council tax they pay. In good times this isn’t so much of a problem, but it will be the cause of a major headache for the coalition too. The realisation that government spending cuts at Westmininster will hit their council’s services is starting to emerge as…

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Nick Clegg – “Politician of the Year”

Nick Clegg – “Politician of the Year”

What do we think of the Spectator’s line-up of awards? We’re coming to that point in the calendar when we also start to look back over the year that was and the first set-piece event took place last night – The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards 2010. This was the line-up after an extraordinary and eventful year that simply did not go to plan. Who could have predicted these names on January 1st? Newcomer of the Year: Caroline Lucas…

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