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Category: General Election

Will this PB post bring a smile back to Gordon’s face?

Will this PB post bring a smile back to Gordon’s face?

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Has he the power to defer the election until 2013? While I was researching the deadline for nominations for the Norwich by-election (4pm today), I found a fascinating research paper from the House of Commons – as reliable a source as could be wished for. It details the timetables for elections to various parliaments, assemblies and councils within the UK as well as giving detail on background and procedure – and contains an amazing loophole relating to the deadline by…

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Are shares in Mandelson being over-sold?

Are shares in Mandelson being over-sold?

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Is he anything like as smart as his billing? Yesterday’s big statement, Brown’s latest re-launch, is the first such major government move since Lord Mandelson was promoted to his unique new position in charge of just about everything. So how come it got such a terrible press this morning. How come that the work of the “great communicator” failed to add the “Mandelson magic” to the programme? Where was the skilled rhetoric, the thread that would bind it together, or…

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What if support for the “others” doesn’t decline?

What if support for the “others” doesn’t decline?

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Who’ll suffer most – Dave, Gord or Nick? Another poll and another big share for “other parties” which have seen their Westminster polling numbers stay at very high levels even though it’s nearly a month since the June 4th Euro Elections. All the pundits, including me, were suggesting a rapid decline as the EU election affect wears off and all the focus is on the battle ahead between Labour and the Tories with the LDs having an interest in a…

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Should MPs have been told about the spending review first?

Should MPs have been told about the spending review first?

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Is Speaker Bercow going to follow through on his warning? Last Wednesday in his statement after PMQs Speaker Bercow made it clear that the first place ministers should make announcements was to the house of commons. Well what’s he going to do about Peter Mandelson’s radio comments this morning that the spending review will be postponed until after the election? Surely this big news on the government’s management of the economy should have come first in a statement to MPs?…

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Could PM Johnson deny Cameron his majority?

Could PM Johnson deny Cameron his majority?

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Would a change give Labour more hope? There’s a sentence in John Rentoul’s weekend piece that is worth examining. For in assessing prospect for the election Rentoul notes “I assume that the Labour Party will recover from its current trough of unpopularity, by which I mean that it replaces Brown with Alan Johnson..” Rentoul, of course, is a Blair biographer and is no fan of Brown Central. He’s also been tipping an Alan Johnson switch-over ahead of the election for…

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New YouGov poll has Dave slightly further ahead

New YouGov poll has Dave slightly further ahead

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CON 40 (+2) LAB 24 (-1) LD 17 (-1) But the changes are all within the margin of error There was a new poll out overnight after all and we are just picking up the details. It was in the People which carried a similar YouGov poll only a few weeks ago. No fieldwork dates are mentioned but I assume that this took place after the Telegraph’s YouGov survey which we featured here on Thursday evening. Let’s hope that the…

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Does Brown have too many deputies?

Does Brown have too many deputies?

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Can he cope with Harriet, Mandy and Ed at the same time? Just as every Prime Minister needs a Willie, as Margaret Thatcher famously noted, so the present incumbent believes he needs Balls. She was right; he may not be. While Balls isn’t Brown’s deputy, he is almost certainly his closest political confidante within the cabinet, his position unassailable and his views taken very seriously by Brown. Alongside him, Peter Mandelson having returned to government and risen to the lofty…

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Has Cameron found the election dividing line – honesty?

Has Cameron found the election dividing line – honesty?

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Indy online Is this going to be the core Tory theme? Usually one of the most consistent Saturday morning political “reads” is Andrew Grice’s column in the Independent and today he speculates on what he think what the Tories are planning to make the election all about. He suggests that Tory riposte to Brown’s “investment versus cuts” will be “to invite voters to choose between “Honest Dave and Dodgy Gordon”. Grice goes on: “When Andrew Lansley, the shadow Health Secretary,…

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