Are people reading too much into this? I suppose we will see many more alerts like this but there’s a bit of a flurry tonight over this job ad from Chris Bryant – the Rhonda MP and Europe minister. Why does this job end on March 31s? Is this a clue to the election date? A member of the Tory PR team twittered it and one or two people have sent me emails. With all due respect to Chris Bryant…
How many losses do we expect them to suffer? At the General Election on May 5th 2005 Labour won 40 of the 59 seats north of the border on just 38.9% of the vote. No wonder that Blair “forgot” about his 1997 manifesto commitment on electoral reform. Since the election they lost Dunfermline to the Lib Dems in 2006 and Glasgow East to the SNP in 2008. This was partly balanced by the “gain” overnight of the Speaker’s seat. So…
What do we think of Labour’s new ad? The Daily Mirror is reporting that the above is the latest from the Labour campaign team designed to impede the Tories. If you get a sense that you’ve seen something like this before then you have. Take something current from the world of show-biz and then create parodies based on leading opposition figures. Thus compare the idea with this campaign poster from 2001:- If worked, of course, the election before last but…
Does the stunning victory have a national significance? As expected Labour have cruised to a victory in the by election caused by the resignation of Michael Martin. Technically this is a gain for the party because previously the seat was held by the Speaker. It’s the numbers themselves that are quite dramatic and will give real heart to the party as it plans the general election campaign. These were:- Labour – 12,231 votes (59.39%) SNP – 4,120 votes (20%) Tory…
Has Bercow’s wife made it easier for the UKIP leader? Could today’s news that the Speaker’s wife, Sally Bercow, has been selected to stand for Labour in next year’s London elections add to her husbands problems in fighting off the challenge from Nigel Farage in Buckingham? For her action might just provide the peg for the UKIP campaign to persuade Tory supporters that they “have permission” not to vote for the Speaker who, by tradition, is not opposed by the…
Daily Mirror October 10th 1974 – Wikimedia Commons Can it get more votes out for Brown’s party? When I started my journalistic career in 1968 the paper ambitious young graduates aspired to work for was the Mirror. It had a circulation topping four million and until the arrival of Murdoch’s Sun was the biggest selling paper in the UK. It had built up a great reputation for covering serious serious stories in a popular manner and certainly had a big…
Are they on the money or not? This is the second part of the so-called “PB SUPER SIX PREDICTIONS – the general election seat bets from half a dozen of the leading political punters on the site. They are Peter the Punter, Richard Nabavi, Peter from Putney, StJohn, AntiFrank and ScottP who between have got bets on in nearly ninety separate constituencies. One of those on this evening’s list is Morley and Outwood – where I’ve punted quite heavily at…
Guardian What would be the impact of a defection? One of the early signs of what was to come from Brown Central was the ferocious campaign to undermine and eventually secure the sacking of Frank Field at the start of the Labour government. He had been brought in by Blair to “think the unthinkable” about welfare reform until the Brownies got there way. This is recounted at length in Tom Bower’s brilliant biography on Brown and the man who is…