Browsed by
Category: Coalition

Could seniors be a bigger problem than stay-at-home mums?

Could seniors be a bigger problem than stay-at-home mums?

Comments 0 Comment

What’ll Osborne do about senior bus pass anomalies? There can be little doubt, surely, that those higher rate tax-payers of 60 and above who have senior bus passes are going to get clobbered next Wednesday in George Osborne’s cuts package. This was a universal benefit announced for all people of 60 and above in England during that hectic month of September 2007 when Gordon Brown was planning for an early election. It came into operation the following May and allows…

Read More Read More

Will today mark the end of unrealistic election pledges?

Will today mark the end of unrealistic election pledges?

Comments 0 Comment

Have the LDs only themselves to blame for the fees predicament? If truth be told when 54 of the current 57 Lib Dem MPs signed the apparently “solemn pledge” to vote against an increase in student fees then very few could have foreseen what a problem it would be six months down the line. As a piece of campaigning in university seats the pledge signing by party candidates looked smart creating a neat photo op. But how it all looks…

Read More Read More

Sean Fear asks: “What If the Cuts Aren’t Unpopular?”

Sean Fear asks: “What If the Cuts Aren’t Unpopular?”

Comments 0 Comment

Should we be challenging the current orthodoxy? Conventional wisdom has it that the Coalition will become extremely unpopular, once its announces the likely cuts in public spending on October 20th , and in particular, once they start to be implemented next year. According to Lord Ashcroft’s recent survey, a majority of Labour members, and Union activists, are convinced that Coalition unpopularity will, on its own, be sufficient to deliver a Labour victory in 2015, although I doubt if that view…

Read More Read More

Does the coalition make a Tory outright victory harder?

Does the coalition make a Tory outright victory harder?

Comments 0 Comment

Final week campaign poster – May 2010 How will the blue team campaign next time? We all remember the closing stages of the May general election. The Lib Dems had surged following the debates and the Tories launched a furious campaign warning of what would happen if there was a hung parliament. In broad terms it worked – certainly in impeding the move to the yellows. But the blues were still 18 seats short of an overall majority and Cameron…

Read More Read More

Should the Mail front page be worrying Downing Street?

Should the Mail front page be worrying Downing Street?

Comments 0 Comment

Daily Mail Was it rushed though to wrong-foot EdM? The Mail’s front page this morning sets out the real challenge for the government over yesterday’s shock announcement by George Osborne on the withdrawal of child benefit from those who are paying tax at the higher rate. For as is well summed up in the headline it seems to be unfair and to penalise stay-at-home mums. The paper sums it up succinctly: “It will mean that any couple with one earner…

Read More Read More

Can the coalition go on winning the economy argument?

Can the coalition go on winning the economy argument?

Comments 0 Comment

Most trusted on the economy All voters % CON % LAB % LD % Coalition led by Cameron & Clegg 50 95 11 69 Labour led by Ed Miliband 31 2 77 18 Neither 8 1 2 4 Don’t know 11 2 9 9 Could the child benefit move undermine public support? The above data is extracted from last Friday’s ICM poll for the Guardian and shows responses to the question “Who would you say you trusted more to take…

Read More Read More

Can Ed Miliband make inroads into these ICM figures?

Can Ed Miliband make inroads into these ICM figures?

Comments 0 Comment

Best for Britain..? All voters% CON voters% LAB voters% LD voters% CON alone 19 50 4 9 LAB alone 26 2 68 8 CON-LD coalition 21 41 3 41 LAB-LD coalition 13 4 20 25 Don’t know 20 4 7 17 Are the LDs and Tories just getting used to each other? The above table is based on data from the latest Guardian/ICM for which the full dataset has now just been published. It strikes me that this is increasingly…

Read More Read More

On Vince’s big day he’s 2/1 favourite to leave first

On Vince’s big day he’s 2/1 favourite to leave first

Comments 0 Comment

First cabinet member to leave Party Price Vince Cable Lib Dem 2/1 William Hague Conservative 4/1 Liam Fox Conservative 5/1 Chris Huhne Lib Dem 8/1 Iain Duncan Smith Conservative 8/1 Theresa May Conservative 14/1 Michael Gove Conservative 16/1 Andrew Lansley Conservative 16/1 Michael Moore Lib Dem 20/1 Andrew Mitchell Conservative 20/1 Nick Clegg Lib Dem 20/1 Owen Paterson Conservative 25/1 Danny Alexander Lib Dem 25/1 Jeremy Hunt Conservative 25/1 Kenneth Clarke Conservative 25/1 Eric Pickles Conservative 25/1 Caroline Spelman Conservative…

Read More Read More