How Labour could win next year without Miliband becoming PM This time next week, we’ll have the results from the local elections, though not yet the Euros. As a whole, they’ll tell us a lot about how the land lies going into the last year of the parliament. One set of contests worth keeping an eye on is that in Ed Miliband’s back yard. On the face of it, the idea that Miliband could lose his seat, even as Labour…
Just 23% think EdM is “up to the job of being PM” Above are four key policy areas tested in the latest YouGov poll and as can be seen the responses have been quite positive. For three of the four areas even CON voters give them their backing. For the other, renationalising the railways, Tory voters split 42-42. The rest of the poll is not so good for the red team. To all questions that have Ed Miliband’s name in…
Will today’s announcements help CON get any closer? With just over a year to go before the general election today’s budget is key to Tory chances. This morning’s news on employment and the general better economic pointers. These, though, have yet to work themselves through in the polling. Political gamblers are taking a more bullish view of the party’s chances as can be seen from the latest trade data, featured in the chart above, from Betfair. I’m putting up this…
Says it all. Let's RT… pic.twitter.com/UrGiNTsP1I — Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) February 24, 2014 Open season now for ad hominen attacks on @grantshapps. There's certainly plenty of material for it. — Susan (@marthasydenham) February 24, 2014 Good to see @grantshapps endorsing ad hominem personal attacks as an electioneering tool. Brave move by Michael Green. Very brave. — Simon HB (@norock) February 24, 2014 And we’ve got more than 14 months to go I’m not convinced that the Tories have got…
@LordAshcroft There's no benefit to LAB in helping close down the issue of Europe which has been so divisive for the Tories. No referendum. — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) January 16, 2014 @MSmithsonPB ..wouldn't bet on that… — Lord Ashcroft (@LordAshcroft) January 16, 2014 Last night I got into a little Twitter discussion with Lord Ashcroft over Labour and an EU referendum. He was articulating what is a widespread Tory view that EdM will be forced ahead of the election to…
Sure sign of trouble is when betting starts on a replacement PaddyPower http://t.co/0KpwlJgy4T shadow chancellor odds pic.twitter.com/4oJgzmCFqo — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) December 8, 2013 PaddyPower is now taking bets on who’ll be shadow chancellor at GE2015 – a sure sign that Balls might be in a spot of bother. I’ve long held the view that it won’t be Ed Balls who, it’ll be recalled, wasn’t EdM’s first choice for the job when he became leader. Whatever the strengths of the incumbent…
Henry G Manson says Ed should do it sooner not later Labour is signed up to an EU referendum in principle. Any new shift in powers will lead to one. That’s just a matter of time. Surely it’s better to take control and choose on your own terms and your own timing? The argument for ‘not right now’ is reasonably coherent. We must focus on jobs and growth. ‘Not 2017’ makes sense because signposting such a timetable four years would…
Has he been taking advice from George W Bush? The forty-third president of the United States said some silly things in his time, to the extent that ‘Bushism’ has become defined not as his political philosophy but as the kind of verbal misspeak that occurs when the brain and mouth take different directions during the same sentence, or alternatively, when a high-powered politician goes in for ill-advised flippancy. On which note, his speech to the 2001 Gridiron Club dinner contained the…