William Hill Politics What sort of regional vote shares would they need? Much has been made of the rise of the BNP, and their chances of winning seats in the European Parliament. We’ve seen some commentators notice that Labour’s PEB is no longer a beacon of multi-culturalism, and others decide to start anti-BNP campaigns. Whilst the issue of immigration and race relations has fallen off as fear about the Economy and Crime has grown, there can be no doubt that…
Why no bail-out for the newspaper industry? I always enjoy the various addresses given at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner – Stephen Colbert’s legendary 2006 performance deserves your time – and this year President Obama acquitted himself with another witty performance (though not as good as his 2005 roasting of Rahm Emanuel) but it was the postscript that was most interesting. Addressing the celebrity journalists (who have, by his own admission, given him a very easy ride), Obama chose…
Best political betting prices What if Boris doesn’t stand? Without wanting to give any credence to the stories of a Boris v Dave rivalry, with Number 10 as the ultimate prize, this past week was not the first time that there have been rumblings that Boris Johnson might not want to spend 8 years running City Hall. You can never tell, especially with his public persona, whether the faux-modesty and claims of no higher ambition are to be taken seriously….
Wikimedia Creative Commons License Three rounds of voting down, two to go in India America may claim to be the world’s greatest democracy, but India is unchallenged as the world’s biggest – and countries that at first seem politically complex, such as Israel, Italy, or Switzerland, pale into elegant simplicity when compared to the behemoth that is Indian politics (the US by contrast seems almost laughably straightforward). The sheer numbers involved in the Indian election are simply mind-boggling. Just two…
In honour of our new Poet Laureate For those of you not familiar with Morus’ Saturday Slant, this is the time of the week where Mike allows me to weave an ill-formed political idea into a completely tangental form of prose with varying degrees of success. Previous victims have included such literary luminaries as Harold Pinter and Sir John Mortimer, so I thought it only fair to pen an homage to Carol Ann Duffy who was yesterday unveiled as our…
BBC News ANC misses 2/3rds, DA wins W Cape, COPE disappointing So, for the first time during the post-apartheid era, the ANC had to pull out all the stops during an election campaign, the emergence of the new COPE party galvanising its efforts, and in the event, its vote share at 65.9% was only four points down on 2004. However the ANC will not have a constitution-changing two-thirds majority in the new National Assembly, with its final tally of 264…
Or might it be the means to re-igniting the party after a defeat? For psephologists, one of the most interesting policies expounded by the Conservative party is that they will introduce individual voter registration to ‘restore the integrity of the ballot‘. It is considered a severe loop-hole that households are the registering unit at present, and that this leaves the system open to vote fraud – a problem that can be compounded by postal voting. No-one can be certain of…
How many U30s will make it into the Commons next time? I’ve been following the selection process for a Labour candidate in the safe seat of Erith & Thamesmead with some interest for the last couple of weeks. For those unfamiliar, there are eight candidates (all female) competing, and the battle-lines have been drawn between the union-supported candidate (Rachel Maskell) who has the backing of Charlie Whelan, and Georgia Gould, the daughter of Lord Gould (Phillip) who was the pollster…