Can she eclipse Palin for the Tea Party vote? The big news in the race for the Republican nomination for the 2012 elections has been the emergence of Michele Bachmann, a 55 year old tax lawyer turned congress-woman, who fourth favourite in the betting. This week saw the CNN candidates’ debate in New Hampshire and afterwards almost all the pundits said that she and Romney came out best. The AP video above gives a good feel of her position. In…
PMQs is about more than winning the argument After last week’s performance and the weekend press coverage all eyes were on the Labour leader at PMQs. He simply could not be seen to fail again. His strategy was something that has worked against Cameron before – raising something that’s very specific in the expectation that Dave is not aware of the detail. Today his attack was based on figures Macmillan that suggest that 7,000 cancer patients stood to lose £94…
Next speaker of the Lords Ladbrokes Odds Frances d’Souza evens Tony Colwyn 5/2 Alastair Goodlad 4/1 Megnad Desai 7/1 Angela Harris 10/1 Julian Redesdale 50/1
Huhne eases while Landley & Clarke tighten in the exit betting After a fair down-beat PMQs with Ed Miliband looking as though he desperately needs something to boost his confidence there’s been the first movement since last week in the cabinet exit betting prices. The big thing with Huhne is whether he’s going to be prosecuted or not and, hopefully, we should know that relatively soon. If he is then his chances of survival will be much reduced. His price…
Should it be a great PMQ opportunity for the Labour leader? There’s just about nothing that leaders’ of the opposition like more than what appears to be a U-turn in government policy, particularly when that has, apparently, been driven by the PM over-ruling, in effect, one of his cabinet. Today there is PMQs and the NHS changes and the position of Andrew Lansley will surely be part of EdM’s planned line of questioning. On top of that there are the…
Is he going to be able to stay in the job? With Cameron making his big speech setting out what appear to be major changes to the NHS reform plan the focus will now be on the health secretary, Andrew Lansley. There’s have been hints in recent weeks that there might a possible resignation if his reforms were altered too much. Only a week and a half ago the usually well-informed Matthew D’Ancona was writing in the Sunday Telegraph… ..”Number…
PoliticsHome Is that why there’s so much continuing mis-trust? There’s a big report out today produced by the newly established YouGov Cambridge and PoliticHome. You can see see Mark Gettleson’s full document here. What strikes me is the gap between the modest overall support for many of the Lansley proposals and the continuing perceptions about the Tory party and the NHS. This is how Gettleson sums it up:- The key explanation however is around the fact voters still don’t trust…
Source FT How can EdM improve the party’s income? Thanks to Jim Packard and Elizabeth Rigby in the FT for spotting this – but according to the latest party fundraising data from the Electoral Commission for the six months to March 31st the Lib Dems are out-fundraising Labour by three to one from individual and corporate donors. They note that the biggest source of money to Labour is the tax-payer (£5.7m) and the unions (£4.6m). What does this say about…