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Author: David Herdson

Where now for Kennedy?

Where now for Kennedy?

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Has Labour misplayed its defections game? It’s well known that Charles Kennedy was not happy with the Lib Dem-Conservative coalition deal when it was put together and by all accounts, remains so. That’s been reinforced by a spate of newspaper articles today that suggest that he might be, or might have been, considering defecting to Labour. As Nick Palmer notes in this morning’s thread, the mere fact that the story’s come out without a simultaneous defection indicates that it’s not…

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How much bottle does Dave have to make sensitive cuts?

How much bottle does Dave have to make sensitive cuts?

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Will the free milk U-turn make next time much harder? Last weekend, the government performed a U-turn so quickly that it may as well have spun round on the spot. Within a few hours of a junior minister being seen to propose scrapping the remaining universal free milk provision for under fives, restricting it to the neediest and saving £50m, Downing Street had squashed the idea. In one sense, it was very probably the right move. £50m is less than…

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Why is the Labour leadership contest so boring?

Why is the Labour leadership contest so boring?

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Has the party lost its mojo? The Labour Party used to give excellent theatre. From conference debates to leadership and deputy leadership elections, the battle for Labour’s – and to those participating, the country’s – future was vigorously fought in public. By contrast, the current contest to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour leader has not exactly caught the public imagination. Why? Having just lost power after 13 years, and with the reasonable prospect of not having a chance of regaining…

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Is a foreign policy revolution taking place?

Is a foreign policy revolution taking place?

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Do Dave’s trips indicate a big change of emphasis? July’s been a busy month for David Cameron on the foreign affairs front with visits to the United States, Turkey and most recently, India. In all three, he’s been effusive towards his hosts and strongly positive about relations between Britain and the countries he’s been in. That’s all par for the course in diplomacy. What’s much less so is the strength of his criticism directed elsewhere: implicitly towards France and Germany…

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Is there still a lone rider tendency?

Is there still a lone rider tendency?

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Is the government still not thinking like a coalition? Last week, the Lib Dem Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, proposed a Graduate Tax as an alternative means of funding higher education to tuition fees. This week, unattributed Tories briefed against it with the result that the proposal is now unlikely to prosper. Leaving aside the merits or otherwise of the tax, the process tells us a lot about how the government is working (or in…

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Henry G asks: How low can Clegg’s scores go?

Henry G asks: How low can Clegg’s scores go?

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What do the Lib Dems do about evaporating support? Nick Clegg may have brought the Liberal Democrats into Government, but his party can only defy political gravity for so long. As one colleague said to me recently ‘let’s not forget that the Lib Dems won more seats led by a drunk Charlie Kennedy than it did with a sober Nick Clegg’. The drama of the coalition has in many ways masked the failure of the Liberal Democrats to meet expectations…

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Is Ashcroft’s AV analysis flawed?

Is Ashcroft’s AV analysis flawed?

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Does the focus on marginals miss the nature of electoral reform? There has been much discussion of the Lord Ashcroft commissioned poll, undertaken in the marginals by Populus, which seeks to examine what would have happened if 125 key marginals had used Alternative Vote (AV) instead of FPTP (First Past The Post) to elect their MP. The article on ConservativeHome can be found here, while analysis by Anthony Wells can be found here. Headline results suggest that the Tories would…

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Has Wales 2011 become the UK’s forgotten election?

Has Wales 2011 become the UK’s forgotten election?

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Can Labour gain outright control in Cardiff in May? Of all the UK’s various assemblies and parliaments, the Welsh one has probably made least impact on the London-based media and consequently, on the wider national consciousness. As an example, ask yourself if you can remember who the First Minister is, now that Rhodri Morgan has retired from the job. As with Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales will go to the polls next Spring and there’s a strong likelihood that it…

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