Is Cameron about to lose his first Tory Cabinet Minister? Today is decision day for Liam Fox and David Cameron. This morning, the interim report on Fox’s conduct in his friendship with Adam Werritty lands on the PM’s desk; at 2.30pm it is Defence Questions in the Commons. That puts tremendous pressure on both men. Cameron can only allow Fox to go to the House if he is confident that there is no resignation offence flagged up in the report…
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Defence Secretary now just 5/4 to be next out Recent months have been fruitful for anyone engaged in setting odds in a “Next out of Cabinet†market, as Shadsy may attest. Hague, Cable, and Huhne have all been involved in stories that have seen their prices tumble – but all remain in post, for now at least. Liam Fox’s job now looks to be very much in the balance, with serious questions over his best…
Does the government need to change the question? I had planned to write a review of the conference season for today’s piece but perhaps the only thing worthy of note that’s not already been endlessly commented on is that the Lib Dems were much more disciplined this year; they didn’t fall out or whinge excessively about losing the AV vote – they’re learning how to act as a party of government. Instead, the most noteworthy events of the last three…
Mark Gill looks at the PM’s ratings ahead of today’s speech Prime minister David Cameron goes to Manchester as the second most popular of the last five prime ministers at the stage of their second party conferences. In Ipsos MORI’s September 2011 survey Camerons’s approval ratings were 39% satisfied and 52% dissatisfied, giving a net score of -13. This compares favourably against the -45 net approval for Brown (in Sept 2008), -27 for Major (in Sept 1992) and -23 for…
While Mike Smithson is on holiday there’ll be fewer thread headers – but PB’s “Big Conversation” will continue. Welcome to this afternoon’s open thread.
Will Osborne’s speech have steadied any nerves? The biggest challenge for the blues in Manchester this week is getting the tone right. Exactly two years ago at the same venue, eight months before the election, the message from Osborne and Cameron was so laden with gloom and doom that many pundits suggest that it was where they started to lose a majority. In many ways the message from Osborne in his big speech today was even more bleak than then…
Thanks once again to Marf for the idea of PB NightHawks and for her excellent spoof of the Hopper painting.
I’ve had quite a busy day betting. My respect for HenryG is such that I thought it was worth wagering a fair bit on his core proposition that EdM is not going to survive and that Yvette Cooper is best placed to win a new leadership election. I got on her at 4/1 which seems like a good price. I also got more on at 11/4 that EdM will step down as leader before the general election. Tonight’s YouGov daily…