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Month: August 2011

Was going for a smaller House of Commons a mistake?

Was going for a smaller House of Commons a mistake?

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Does it increase the risk of the changes being voted down? The big UK story in the Financial Times this morning is something what we’ve touched on several times here on PB already – the possibility that the planned new boundaries for the next election get voted down when they come before the commons in two years time. Jim Packard reports that “that significant numbers of Liberal Democrat and Tory MPs” look set to join Labour in opposing the detailed…

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Have we become disenchanted with all three party leaders?

Have we become disenchanted with all three party leaders?

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How’ve they done as we end the political year? This week’s party leader ratings from YouGov are now out and show very little change on a week ago. I thought it might be useful to do a comparison from August 27 2010 – exactly a year ago. With Ed Miliband the change is from the end of September 2010. Back then all three of them were enjoying net positive ratings – now they all have at least double digit negatives….

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It’s Saturday night in the PB Night Hawks Cafe

It’s Saturday night in the PB Night Hawks Cafe

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This is PB’s overnight open thread slot. Talk about anything particularly what’s in the Sunday papers as they start to appear. We’ve also the dramatic developments with Hurricane Irene off the east coast of the US. I’ve got a special interest here – my son Robert, his wife Lucille and their two young children are on holiday in Long Island. Robert, it should be noted, played a key part in the creation of PB and continues to manage the technical…

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Why weren’t ICM’s VI numbers in the Guardian print edition?

Why weren’t ICM’s VI numbers in the Guardian print edition?

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Is the paper embarrassed by what its pollster is finding? After yesterday’s article looking at what happened the last time pollsters were tested against real election results a PB regular contacted me to say that the latest ICM poll was not covered in the print edition of the Guardian. I found that hard to believe so I’ve just popped into my local public library to go through this week’s print editions of the paper. I might have missed it and…

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Obesity: should fatties be taxed rather than fat?

Obesity: should fatties be taxed rather than fat?

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Could a risk-based National Insurance system ever work? Government health drives are always dangerous things politically, as they tend to deliver unpopular information to people who know the truth of it but dislike having to admit their failings to themselves and so blame the messenger. That the message is frequently accompanied by tax increases doesn’t really help either. The reports about obesity published in The Lancet yesterday and widely covered in the media fit very much into that mould, advocating…

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Good evening PB Night Hawks..

Good evening PB Night Hawks..

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On the evening that Sally B has been evicted.. The big political news as we open the PB Night Hawk Cafe is, of course, that Sally Bercow has been evicted from the Big Brother house. A nation mourns just as it does when Manchester United win. Meanwhile there’s an interesting post on the Archbishop Cramner blog in which he tries to create a cabinet consisting solely of bloggers. Greg Callus, Morus as we know him, and myself are both in…

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