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Category: Coalition

Can Ed Miliband afford a repeat of this?

Can Ed Miliband afford a repeat of this?

Click to play Henry G Manson looks to next week’s strike In the 5 months since the last round of industrial action in June Ed Miliband has had ample opportunity to develop a stance of the forthcoming strikes over pensions. There was plenty of choice. This was a chance for Labour to develop an alternative policy or to defend the past reforms from a Labour government that made public sector pensions more affordable. The Labour leader could have tackled some…

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Concern about the EU jumps to a six year high

Concern about the EU jumps to a six year high

Is it set to rise further? The latest Ipsos-MORI issues index is out and the big movers have been fuel prices, up 4 to 9, and the EU/Europe/Euro which has gone from 4% in October to 8% now. This is its highest level since 2005. For much of the period since then the level of concern recorded by MORI has been in the 2-3% range. This polling is unique in that respondees are not prompted at all during their face-…

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PB NightHawks with five local council by-elections

PB NightHawks with five local council by-elections

If it’s Thursday then that means two things to the political classes – Question Time on BBC1 and, of course, the local council by-elections. To me these are important for what they say about local party organisation and just how motivated activists are. There are five tonight and there’s a good preview here with all the facts and figures on the Britain Votes site. One of them has been caused by caused by the resignation of a Tory councillor who…

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MORI: Only half of LAB supporters are satisfied with Ed

MORI: Only half of LAB supporters are satisfied with Ed

Ipsos-MORI.com How long before they’re in the minority? Above are two MORI charts from the latest survey covering leadership ratings. As can be seen there has not be much movement overall but within the data from those saying they are Labour voters we see a trend continuing. Satisfaction with Ed Miiband is on the decline while dissatisfaction continues to increase. On a more general level on the last thread I was asked why there is a such a large discrepancy…

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LAB lead moves to 7 points with IpsosMORI

LAB lead moves to 7 points with IpsosMORI

Is the surge to “others” on the wane? Just published is the Ipsos-MORI Reuters political monitor for November and the VI figures are above. As can be seen the split is with changes on last month  CON 34 (nc): LAB 41 (+3): LD 12 (nc).   So the very high others figure of October is on the decline. The firm always produces two sets of VI numbers – one of all those who expressed a preference and the other of those…

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Huntsman moves to third favourite after latest debate

Huntsman moves to third favourite after latest debate

Is their still hope for my 200/1 long-shot? Back in November 2008, only a week and a half after Obama won the White House race, I placed a bet of £50 with Ladbrokes at 200/1 that ex-governor of Utah, Jon Huntsman, would be the next president. I abandoned hope for the bet a few months latest when Huntsman, who is also a former diplomat, accepted an offer by Obama to be the US ambassador to China. He served in Beijing…

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Should Gillan next exit punters be worried?

Should Gillan next exit punters be worried?

What’ll this do to Huhne’s position? I always love it when a PB post sets off a big gamble. Before yesterday’s well researched piece by Henry G Manson suggesting that we put our money on the HS2-protesting Cheryl Gillen you could have got 8/1 against the Welsh Secretary being the next cabinet exit. Within a few hours that was in to 3/1 where, arguably, it still offers good value. The main obvious other possibility is, of course, LD energy secretary,…

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A reminder a about a week on Thursday

A reminder a about a week on Thursday

As per usual the venue is the Dirty Dicks pub directly opposite Liverpool Street station in the City of London. Fat Steve has once again arranged for us to have our own dedicated area on the first floor at the rear of the building. This is for anybody who is interested in PB – not just those who post. It is true that in the past these have tended to be overwhelmingly male gatherings but number of women attending has…

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