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Category: General Election

David Herdson writes: Ed Miliband: my part in his downfall

David Herdson writes: Ed Miliband: my part in his downfall

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Did I win the Conservatives the election? A year ago today I received an unsolicited e-mail from an extremely senior Conservative election strategist, asking if I ever came to London as he’d be interested in picking my brains. Unsurprisingly, I said ‘Yes’. The approach wasn’t completely out of the blue. A few months earlier, he was a speaker at the 2014 Yorkshire Regional conference and at the end of the session, I door-stepped him in order to hand him a…

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Corbyn’s LAB closes the gap once again in the October ComRes/Mail phone poll

Corbyn’s LAB closes the gap once again in the October ComRes/Mail phone poll

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ComRes Mail poll finds just 8% saying government should go ahead with Osborne's tax credits plan pic.twitter.com/Tn9KMPKHiw — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) October 30, 2015 Today's 5% CON lead in ComRes phone poll compares with the13% gap recorded by firm 2 weeks ago in online survey — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) October 30, 2015 This may ease some jitters within the red team After the GE2015 polling disaster ComRes was the first firm to announce radical changes in its weightings to deal…

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Farage and UKIP the big gainers in the October Ipsos phone poll

Farage and UKIP the big gainers in the October Ipsos phone poll

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Farage up from -5% to +8% in latest Ipsos satisfaction ratings. pic.twitter.com/ZngyB8DhRt — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) October 26, 2015 Chart with voting figures in latest Ipsos poll pic.twitter.com/MEqe2qbwTp — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) October 26, 2015 42% say Corbyn and 39% say Cameron should not lead their parties at the general election – Ipsos polling pic.twitter.com/OG9wF1UMQv — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) October 26, 2015

How readers of the different national papers voted at GE2015

How readers of the different national papers voted at GE2015

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YouGov chart showing how readers of different national papers voteVia @JoeMurphyLondon pic.twitter.com/Tvswr1XHVO — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) October 23, 2015 I love this chart which has just been produced by YouGov. It shows the splits of the readerships of the main national newspapers at the general election in May. Overall there’s nothing that’s really surprising though, perhaps, the fact that the Guardian has far fewer Lib Dem than the the FT,Times or the Telegraph comes as something as a surprise. Back…

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Antifrank: How the Conservatives will lose their hegemony

Antifrank: How the Conservatives will lose their hegemony

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In 1897, the British Empire was at its zenith.  “The sun never sets on the British Empire” was a literal truth.  It was the world’s dominant military power and gloried in its success as leader of the industrial revolution.  Its puissance seemed unchallengeable.  It was against that background that Rudyard Kipling composed a poem for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee.  This is its penultimate verse: “If, drunk with sight of power, we loose, Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,…

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Corbyn’s LAB gets to within 4% with ICM equalling the party’s best since the general election

Corbyn’s LAB gets to within 4% with ICM equalling the party’s best since the general election

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Wiki list of all GE voting polls since the general election https://t.co/XJa8AXv4HC pic.twitter.com/UoKkR4LNpk — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) October 12, 2015 This could calm the nerves of those worried about the new leader As the above panel shows there have been precious few voting polls since the general election. Many of the pollsters and those who commissioned them have cut back on their efforts pending the review a what went wrong on May 7th. But some have carried on notably the major…

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Almost all of LAB’s current problems stem from eight years ago today when Gordon Brown recorded this interview

Almost all of LAB’s current problems stem from eight years ago today when Gordon Brown recorded this interview

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The day an autumn 2007 vote was bottled Eight years today an event took place from which, I’d argue, all Labour’s trouble stem – the decision by the then PM to call off what were very advanced plans to have an early general election. Everything had been geared up for this to be called in the days after the Tory conference. Even a fleet of limousines to carry ministers about on had been booked and paid for. Three months earlier…

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Extraordinary. The union boss who thinks that losing the election was a price worth paying to get Corbyn

Extraordinary. The union boss who thinks that losing the election was a price worth paying to get Corbyn

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Trade Union leader says he's glad LAB lost election because they've now got Corbyn. The world's gone mad. https://t.co/aBnCiWCkBE — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) October 5, 2015 CWU Terry Pullinger says he's glad labour lost the election as now they have Corbyn. @LucyMPowell mouths 'I'm not clapping that!' — Owen Bennett (@owenjbennett) October 5, 2015 Trying to understand what’s happened to the Labour movement I was completely knocked out by the above Tweet posted last night about comments made by a…

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