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Category: Coalition

How long will it take for the Lib Dems to recover?

How long will it take for the Lib Dems to recover?

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Henry G Manson on the junior coalition partner This summer Nick Clegg said he wants his party to become a “fully-fledged party of government”. Despite that his party faces wipeout in 2014 and 2015 on top of the electoral hammer blows it’s received since it formed a Coalition with the Conservatives. More than half of the people who voted for the Liberal Democrats in 2010 have deserted them. The party has fewer than 3,000 councillors for the first time in…

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Local By-Election Preview: July 25th 2013

Local By-Election Preview: July 25th 2013

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Braintree East on Braintree (Lab Defence) Last Local Election (2011): Con 47, Lab 9, Greens 2, Ind 2 (Conservative overall majority of 34) Ward Result: (Emboldened denotes elected) Elwyn Bishop Lab 762 41.9% David Messer C 759 41.7% Collette Gibson Lab 756 Eric Lynch Lab 710 Luke Harrington C 691 Rikki Williams C 668 Wendy Partridge Grn 297 16.3% “The Only Way is Essex” could be a by word for how to win a general election. At the 1997 general…

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Lib Dem incumbency: immune to government?

Lib Dem incumbency: immune to government?

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Local factors could mean they’ll be as hard to shift as ever The biggest and longest-lasting movement in opinion polling since the 2010 general election has been the loss of at least half of the Lib Dem vote, most of which has gone to Labour.  By contrast, despite the spending restraint and what at times has been a strained relationship between the Conservatives and their traditional supporters, the last YouGov poll showed only a 1% direct net swing from Con…

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Dave might not have been so upbeat at PMQs if this Ipsos-MORI poll had come out two hours earlier

Dave might not have been so upbeat at PMQs if this Ipsos-MORI poll had come out two hours earlier

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Chart from Ipsos-MORI showing today's poll with LAB lead up 7 to 11% pic.twitter.com/3NYnE3em7m — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) July 17, 2013 Last month it was CON 31, LAB 35, LD 10, UKIP 12 But the leader ratings see a big move to Dave Dave now doing better than Ed in the Ipsos-MORI leader satisfaction ratings pic.twitter.com/AFvjeMjhe4 — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) July 17, 2013 EdM's Ipsos-MORI satisfaction ratings now as bad as Hague at the same stage of his leadership pic.twitter.com/GTWuvIV2fn…

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The coalition could be heading into stormy weather over the Royal Mail privatisation

The coalition could be heading into stormy weather over the Royal Mail privatisation

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The first polling shows the scale of the challenge In the first polling since Vince Cable’s Royal Mail sell-off announcement shows very substantial opposition right across the political spectrum. Even the Tory voters in the poll had more opposing the plan than supporting. With less than 22 months to go before the general election I wonder whether such a plan with so little support is a good idea. Certainly the arguments in favour need to be made more convincing if…

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EdM takes on his paymasters

EdM takes on his paymasters

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This from @GeneralBoles Twitter's top political photo-shopper who as Nick Boles does a bit of MPing on the side pic.twitter.com/x0GYlJsHpd — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) July 9, 2013 I love the old political maxim, repeated by Peter Kellner this morning, that you should “never let a serious crisis go to waste”. This is particularly important for opposition leaders because it can often be challenging for them to get any media attention as Cameron found during Gordon’s media honeymoon in 2007. It’s governments…

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PB Nighthawks is now open

PB Nighthawks is now open

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  Home of the web’s best political conversation If you’re experiencing a Night Fever with this hot weather, why not relax, and converse into the night on the day’s events in PB NightHawks. Whether you’re a poster or whether you’re a lurker, why not post on Nighthawks tonight. It’ll be a Tragedy if some lurkers don’t delurk. The round up of recent events (click on the links below, and it will bring up the relevant story)   ‘Blairites manipulating Labour…

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The Lynton Crosby way of squeezing UKIP could end up reinforcing LD switchers to LAB

The Lynton Crosby way of squeezing UKIP could end up reinforcing LD switchers to LAB

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If this is the newly confident Crosby line for Tories it's good: never mind Ukip this is a fight for a Tory or Labour government #bbcsp — Miranda Green (@greenmiranda) July 7, 2013 The excellent Miranda Green Tweeted the above during BBC1’s Sunday Politics yesterday and my immediate reaction was that she was right and this form of rhetoric would work very effectively at GE2015 squeezing the UKIP vote and moving it to the Tories. Framing the battle in these…

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