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Henry G: EdM’s view on AV is more important than OES

Henry G: EdM’s view on AV is more important than OES

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There Is No Alternative To Leadership On AV The first big challenge facing Ed Miliband’s leadership will not being Oldham and Saddleworth by-election which, thanks to The Speaker, has incredibly been delayed. The pressing internal political challenge facing the new leader is clarifying and confirming Labour’s position on the Alternative Vote. Last Friday Andy Burnham, Labour’s election co-ordinator chose to announce that the Labour Party won’t now be campaigning in favour of the Alternative Vote during the referendum. This is…

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Has Bercow made a serious error over Woolas?

Has Bercow made a serious error over Woolas?

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A special piece by MORUS on this afternoon’s statement Firstly a Judicial Review cannot happen, because a Judicial Review is not permitted to review the workings of the High Court (inc the Election Court) or the Court of Appeal. If the High Court takes complete leave of its senses and awards a Judicial Review, it should be ignored as being an unconstitutional crackpot court. Secondly, any appeal to the Court of Appeal concerning the illegal offence is tangential to the…

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Sean Fear looks to next May’s locals

Sean Fear looks to next May’s locals

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How much potential is there for Labour progress? Regular readers of this blog will know that I regard local by-election results as being a good lead indicator of the next round of local elections. Despite having gigantic opinion poll leads from 1997-2003, the last Labour government regularly lost ground in successive rounds of local elections, during that period. Local by-elections pointed to these losses, whereas national opinion polls did not. The point should be obvious. National opinion polls are snapshots…

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Are the new boundaries going to be announced all at once?

Are the new boundaries going to be announced all at once?

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Is the plan a big bang rather than a dribble? We all know that a key part of the coalition’s electoral reform package is to reduce the commons from the current 650 seats to 600 all apart from one or two of the same size. What I understand tonight is that next September there’s going to be a big announcement when the boundaries of all the new seats will be revealed all at once. Until now the process has been…

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BBC apologises for the EdM results cock-up?

BBC apologises for the EdM results cock-up?

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But will they ever learn – WE WANT THE FECKING NUMBERS The BBC has this afternoon apologised for the total Horlicks it made of its spacial programme on Saturday September 25th when the results in Labour’s leadership election were being announced. It will be recalled that some cretin decided it was smarter to have Nick Robinson talk over the announcement of what was a complex set of numbers coming, as it turned out to entirely the wrong conclusion. Robinson should…

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Should Clegg have confessed to…being a smoker?

Should Clegg have confessed to…being a smoker?

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Has he broken what’s become the ultimate taboo? Extraordinarily one of the most covered political stories this morning is the “confession”, if that is the right word, that Nick Clegg made to Kirsty Young on Radio 4s Desert Island Discs that he likes to smoke. The “revelation” came at the end of the programme when he revealed that his “luxury on a desert island” would be “a stash of cigarettes.” I like Nicholas Lezard’s article on this in the Guardian…

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Is talk of a post election coalition premature?

Is talk of a post election coalition premature?

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Could Old & Sad upset the good relations? After a week in which the coalition has broadly withstood what has probably been its biggest test it’s inevitable that speculation has resumed over the partnership continuing after the next election. This has been fuelled by comments said to have been made in private by Francis Maude suggesting that the coalition should continue even if the Tories won a majority. Ex-Tory front bencher and now ConHome writer, Paul Goodman, has made his…

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Is this why I can keep my oldies’ bus pass?

Is this why I can keep my oldies’ bus pass?

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YouGov 23/10/10 All 18-24 25-39 40-59 60 plus CON 41 35 38 39 47 LAB 40 44 43 41 36 LD 10 12 11 10 8 And the older you the more you are likely to vote Just look at the age splits from the latest YouGov poll. Labour is leading in every segment up to the age of 59. Then the 60 plus groups come in and there’s a massive margin for the Tories. Funny that – we oldies…

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