Why aren’t Labour using by-elections as practice? There can’t be many Labour supporters who were glad to hear that Ian Gibson had resigned forcing a by-election in Norwich North. They might not have been much happier at the prospect of fighting the SNP for Michael Martin’s old seat either. Both are potential losses for the Government, so it should be a case of finding silver linings. The only benefit to by-elections where you can only lose or hold on (with…
Wikimedia Creative Commons But Finance Minister & over 100 MPs wanted him to quit These are desperate times for the ruling party – the PM is deeply unpopular, polls indicate it will lose the next election badly, there has been a messy cabinet reshuffle and there is a groundswell among the party’s MPs for a new leader to take over. All of this is very familiar from British politics, but is currently being played out in Tokyo as well as…
CON 42% (+2) LAB 25% (+1) LD 18% (+1) YouGov have Tories over 40%, ComRes say not quite ITN have announced a new YouGov poll which has the Conservatives increasing their lead over Labour to 17 points, but all major parties gaining slightly at the expense of ‘Others’. This implies that the mistrust of the major parties over expenses at the time of the European elections has largely died away, which won’t be good news for the Greens in Norwich…
How can £20bn be justified without more helicopters? The main story of the weekend is the ongoing row about how well resourced British troops in Afghanistan are, and what needs to be done to lessen the recent casualty rate. Sir Richard Dannet and Sir Jock Stirrup have both been widely quoted, and David Cameron and Nick Clegg have also piled the pressure on the government. The other defence story this weekend is the delay to the decision about Trident. Afghanistan…
Or are the markets overreacting again? Two disclaimers to begin with: firstly, as I’ve already admitted, the Conservative candidate in Norwich is a friend of mine. Irrespective of party, I think she’d make a great MP, and I hope she wins, but unfortunately, that means I cannot write without bias about the Norwich North by-election, so I won’t particularly try. Secondly, my betting record in UK by-elections is rubbish. Awful. Embarassingly bad. I make a very healthy profit on US…
A year on from his “bid” how much credibility does he have left? There isn’t a political version of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (perhaps there ought to be), but if there were, the share price of David Miliband, probably rated a “sell” since last autumn’s Conference, would have been in free-fall after the recent Cabinet reshuffle. For those hoping to see the termination of Brown’s premiership, it had been an exciting few days, with the rolling resignations of Smith and…
Once lost, could it be reclaimed? Looking at the betting markets, there are clearly plenty of punters who think the Conservatives are almost certain to see Chloe Smith elected on the 23rd July. With the hulabaloo of the national media, by-elections are crucial shapers of the political narrative, but I wonder if their usefulness outlasts the by-election itself. Labour seem doomed to lose the seat that was vacated by ‘Dr Ian Gibson’ after the party foolishly prohibited him from standing…
Mirror.co.uk Is Harriet Harman back on manouevres? My initial response was that it must be an April Fool delivered late by her Press Office, but in the light of a new day it appears that tackling ‘anti-Northern discrimination’ was a genuine policy announcement from the Press Office of Harriet Harman MP QC. Harman has, of course, long been the self-appointed poster child of the equality movement – promoting the equalisation of women, ethnic minorities and LGBTs in British society. I…