Maidstone North on Maidstone (Con defence) Result: Con 364 (26% -6% on last time), Lab 270 (19% +8% on last time), Lib Dem 719 (51% +20% on last time), Green 47 (3% -2% on last time) (No UKIP candidate this time -20%) Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative with a majority of 355 (25%) on a swing of 13% from Con to Lib Dem Westway on Tanbridge (Lib Dem defence) Result: Con 239 (26% -3% on last time), Lab 118 (13%…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpEK73kjiDQ “If only we Germans had a word for it”. The BBC’s comedy news programme The Now Show came up with an imagined quote from Chancellor Angela Merkel reflecting on how her failure to form a new German coalition government was being relished by her detractors. Two alleged car crash interviews by the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell also inspired Schadenfreude and it was probably not confined to Tories. Over the years McDonnell has rubbed up against plenty of his PLP…
Perth City South on Perth and Kinross (Con defence) First Preferences: Con 1,734 (31% +6% on last time), Lab 314 (6% unchanged on last time), Lib Dem 1,597 (29% -6% on last time), Green 102 (2% -1% on last time), Ind 25 (0% -4% on last time), SNP 1,780 (32% +6% on last time) SNP lead of 46 (1%) with no swing between Con and SNP (6% swing from Lib Dem to SNP) Conservative HOLD elected on sixth count Rutherglen…
“When are we going to convert you?” I was frankly rather flattered to be asked that question by Laura Parker, then political secretary to Jeremy Corbyn and now national director of Momentum. Her question was whether, in effect, I had abandoned my Corbo-scepticism following the General Election in which her boss had led Labour to a better than expected result. I pointed her to my PB verdict on that result. I said I was wrong – and right — about Jeremy:…
Excessive reparations aren’t a good idea Angela Merkel might not, just at the moment, be giving Brexit her full attention, given the difficulty of converting the results of Germany’s September election into a viable coalition government. Nonetheless, Brexit is a big problem for her and for the other EU27 leaders, and one which cannot simply be ignored. European, and especially German, history has important lessons which they should heed. In 1806, Frederick William III of Prussia went to war against…
Kirkley on Waveney (Lab defence) Result: Con 217 (28% +7% on last time), Lab 374 (48% +12% on last time), Lib Dem 84 (11% no candidate last time), UKIP 78 (10% -10% on last time), Green 30 (4% -5% on last time) (No Independent candidate this time -15%) Labour HOLD with a majority of 157 (20%) on a swing of 2.5% from Con to Lab St. Margaret’s on Waveney (Lab defence) Result: Con 487 (42% +12% on last time), Lab…
Limestone Peak on High Peak (Con defence) Result: Con 261 (54% +4% on last time), Lab 133 (27% unchanged on last time), Lib Dem 58 (12% no candidate last time), Green 34 (7% no candidate last time) (No UKIP candidate this time -23%) Conservative HOLD with a majority of 128 (27%) on a swing of 2% from Labour to Conservative Buckley, Bistre West on Flintshire (Lab defence) Result: Con 59 (8% no candidate last time), Lab 398 (54% +5% on…
Don Brind, who first began working at the Palace of Westminster in the 1970s and is still there gives his perspective When I first heard rumours of media naming and shaming it looked as though this would be Labour story. A lobbyist friend named a couple of Labour MPs who were said to be “lawyering up”. In the event it has been allegations about top Tories that have made the running. The most serious allegation, however, has been Bex Bailey’s…