Should he have stayed away? The BBC coverage of Edward’s speech to the cuts rally in Hyde Park moved first to a split screen and then blanked out completely as trouble erupted in the Oxford Street area. The vast bulk of the demonstration has been peaceful and good-natured but there was always a risk that a small minority would want to operate differently. I cannot believe that the timing of the violence was a coincidence. Mike Smithson
Who does it make life harder for – government or opposition? It would be easy to see the admission made by George Osborne in this week’s Budget that the anticipated growth rate for 2011 had fallen and that the expected levels of borrowing had gone up as bad news for the government. And in the short term, it is. It means Labour have the opportunity to claim that the government’s policies aren’t working (whether or not they are isn’t the…
The big polling news tonight should be the March ICM survey for the Guardian which was pushed back from its normal slot so as to get reaction to the budget. The details will be published here when they are available – in the meantime here’s Marf’s take on the Libya bombing campaign. UPDATE: Tories back in the lead with ICM Poll/publication End date CON (%) LAB (%) LD (%) ICM Guardian 25/03/11 37 36 16 ICM Guardian 20/02/11 35 38…
Which is most to blame for the cuts? (YouGov) CON-LD coalition % Last Labour government % Both of them % Neither % Don’t know % 25 March 2011 25 42 21 6 5 21 March 2011 23 38 26 7 5 07 March 2011 27 40 22 6 5 21 February 2011 25 41 24 5 5 07 February 2011 25 38 26 6 5 25 January 2011 26 40 24 5 6 20/01/2011 Ed Balls becomes shadow chancellor …
The Sun Labour’s ratings on the economy slip back The first voting intention survey since the budget, the Sun/YouGov had CON 37: LAB 41: LD 11 – the best figure for the blues s since February and equalling the best for the yellows. The gap was down to four points. In other questions there’s also good news for both Osborne personally and the coalition government generally. The survey found that 38% of those sampled trust the coalition on the economy,…
Does the new form sound more prime ministerial? The news that apparently the Labour leader wants to be known as Edward Miliband in future has been treated with widespread guffaws – as you’d expect. No doubt we’ll see all sorts of pop psychology in the media over the next twenty four hours as so called “experts” pronounce on his motivation and whether it will have an impact. This, together with the reports that he’s planning to marry his long-standing partner…
Is UKIP felt to be not quite respectable? Last month UKIP decided that it should campaign for a YES result in the May 5th referendum. In a statement the party said:“.. we recognise that AV does enable all voters to register their first preference vote with the candidate of their conscience, and so demolishes the ‘wasted vote’ issue. Under AV, UKIP could potentially achieve a much higher share of the vote through ‘honest’ first preferences.” I’m sure that’s a correct…
But is the biggest lesson the fall of the Lisbon government? George Osborne won’t be too unhappy when he flicks though the front pages this morning – though the reception to his plans from even friendly quarters is perhaps not as enthusiastic as might have hoped. The challenge, of course, is the context in which the government is operating. It’s a lot easier to get good headlines when the economy is going well and there’s money to hand out. James…