The Guardian is reporting that Kenneth Clarke is fighting to keep his cabinet post. This would appear to be a response to the a story in The Sunday Telegraph, which had a Tory MP on the right saying “Ken must accept he has had his day and it is time to move on. We must send out to voters a coherent and tough message on law and order and we are not doing that at the moment. It is not for nothing Ken is…
The Times has an article discussing future Tory electoral strategies. It says key Tory ministers are pushing for a dramatic shift in the way the next Tory election campaign is run. One key Tory minister said “The next election shouldn’t be about love-bombing and seeking the vote we need to win to the Left. We can’t win votes by being cuddly Tory-Lib Dem lite. We actually need votes to the right of us,†said one minister who is holding meetings…
Henry G Manson asks whether we are seeing the return of the nasty party? Ten years ago Home Secretary Theresa May told her party’s annual conference that too often the Conservative Party was viewed as “the nasty partyâ€. There’s been considerable efforts shake off that image under David Cameron since 2005 with a new stance of social issues. Peter Hoskins writing at Conservative Home and in the Times warns the Prime Minister of a “fresh sourness†in some of his recent…
The Ipsos-Mori Voting Intention and Leadership ratings are out. On the voting intention it is Conservatives 32 (+1) Labour 42 (-2) Lib Dems 11 (-1) Despite their lead being reduced, Labour will be delighted with a ten point lead with a phone pollster. On the leadership ratings. David Cameron has seen an improvement from a net rating of  minus 27 in July to a net rating of minus 16 this month. Ed Miliband has also seen an improvement, in July…
Is the struggle to retain the 20 seat boundary bonus doomed? It’s being reported by the Telegraph’s Ben Brogan that Cameron is working on a plan to offer the LDs a deal on state funding party funding as a new quid pro quo for getting the boundary changes through. Brogan writes: “…over the next year or so Mr Clegg will find a way to back the boundary review when it comes up for a vote in the Commons. In exchange,…
Would Dave sack his mate to remain PM? If the Olympics were not on then the story that would be dominating the headlines would be Cameron’s decision to put party unity ahead of the coalition on Lords reform. It’s been widely reported that Dave is going to abandon the plan following the rebellion by Tory back-benchers last month. The question now is what next? How will Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems respond? There’ve been suggestions that Dave will try…
BBC News Has Cameron made the right decision? After all the speculation the PM has said that Osborne stays as chancellor – not just for now but until the general election. This is the BBC report:- “..Mr Cameron, asked during a visit to the Olympics whether Mr Osborne would be staying in his job, said: “George Osborne is doing an excellent job in very difficult circumstances and he has my full support in going on doing that job.” Asked if…
Now some data to drive the Boris for leader campaign? YouGov has just revealed further data from its latest which suggests that the Tories would be doing markedly better if Boris Johnson rather than David Cameron was the leader. It now appears that the poll had THREE different voting intention questions which produced very different outcomes. The standard one reported overnight had CON 32: LAB 43: LD 10. Then a second question was put which said “Imagine that at the…