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Is this man worth a bet as next Labour leader?

Is this man worth a bet as next Labour leader?

Could Ed Balls be the best value outside bet? John Rentoul on the Independent’s new blog platform has written an epic two-part feature for GQ magazine on Ed Balls’ apparent ambitions to be leader of his party (see part I and part II). He acknowledges that the idea might seem preposterous to many, and quotes a aide to former Prime Minister Tony Blair: Until recently, this has been a ridiculous prospect. I couldn’t even finish the question before one aide…

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“Four To Follow” for 2009 – Part 1

“Four To Follow” for 2009 – Part 1

Wikipedia International leaders to keep an eye on as the year unfolds As all fans of flat or National Hunt racing will know, the “Ten To Follow” is an integral part of the beginning of any season. A selection of horses that are worth keeping an eye on over the new season and that are thought likely to progress is presented for the perusal of the reader. Closer to home, the Politicalbetting Ten To Follow is run by Peter the…

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Is the Home Secretary toast?

Is the Home Secretary toast?

Or does she have nothing to lose by staying on? The newspapers have broken a story that Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, has been claiming £500 allowances for living at a house belonging to her sister. The Mail on Sunday claims that she has received £116,000 in allowances whilst lodging at her sister’s house. This is in addition to the taxpayer-funded security, which the paper estimates as costing around £200,000 per annum. The Home Secretary’s Special Advisor claims that this…

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Would a Shadow Cabinet have helped?

Would a Shadow Cabinet have helped?

How bold can you be in your first 100 days? For those of us who admired how tight and disciplined the Obama campaign was for its duration, it is mystifying how lax the vetting appears to have been around Cabinet nominations. First Bill Richardson was forced to withdraw, allowing Republican Senator Judd Gregg (NH) to take the position at Commerce. They survived the tremors around new Treasury Secretary Geithner’s tax returns, but the same problem of suddenly-discovered tax liabilities has…

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Now is the winter of our discontent?

Now is the winter of our discontent?

…who shall be the ‘glorious sun of York’? The phrase ‘the Winter of Discontent’ is perhaps now better known to describe the political demise of the Callaghan government and subsequent victory of Margeret Thatcher in 1979 than the misquoted opening line of Shakespeare’s Richard III whence it came. It captured, and still does, a deep misery – the feeling of a spiralling towards catastrophe that media pundits are trying to re-ignite in the face of a global depression, wildcat strikes and what…

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All over bar the voting?

All over bar the voting?

Will Netanyahu/Obama be any better for the peace process than Olmert/Bush? The lockstep between American and Israeli politics was graphically illustrated earlier this week, with IDF forces leaving Gaza as Obama was being inaugurated in Washington, Israel having “made hay while the sun shone” during the dying days of the Bush administration. From a purely Israeli viewpoint, the Gaza operation has probably been deemed more successful than the disastrous Lebanon war of 2006, but from my personal perspective, if Israel…

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Sixteen more months of meltdown for Labour?

Sixteen more months of meltdown for Labour?

More bad news for Brown in the Sundays 2009 now very much has the feel of 1996 – a government holding onto power in the hopes that “something will turn up”, but now looking increasingly likely that they will, like John Major’s Conservatives, be boxed in all the way to a May 2010 election which they will lose heavily. Kicking off the bleak news for the government this weekend was of course Friday morning’s announcement that the UK economy is…

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