Extraordinary and moving pictures from Paris
Pictures from Paris being screened around the world pic.twitter.com/0aHSZq4h8R — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) January 11, 2015
Forget PMQ reactions – the big story this afternoon is the killing in Paris
Gunmen responsible for deadly attack on #CharlieHebdo are still on the loose, @fhollande says. http://t.co/sBOkqaRg1Y pic.twitter.com/km88JvZmCa — CNN (@CNN) January 7, 2015 RIP Charb. Assassinated over a drawing today #CharlieHebdo pic.twitter.com/X9SosWGEBf — Ricardo Coutada (@rcoutada) January 7, 2015
For your Christmas Day entertainment – Guess the Constituency
The PB Xmas Quiz. Guess the constituency. To see detailed pics go https://t.co/dseD1gqEjI pic.twitter.com/B6KEIe0OgA — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) December 25, 2014 Right then folks, as there are no local by-elections today and by the end of today you are all liable to be dozing off not in the middle of Her Majesty’s speech I hope (after all those betting markets were suspended earlier in the month thanks to some unusual betting patterns) it’s time to get those old grey cells into working…
Austria, Serbia and George W Bush
The descent into WWI is a 21st Century story Sepia-toned silent images of black-coated or feather-hatted diplomats lend a reassuring distance to the events that plunged the world into war a hundred years ago this week. It looks like a world long since vanished and in one sense, it is. However, like much of that story, it is an illusion; all the more dangerous for the complacency that false reassurance breeds. Far from being a different age, the threats posed…
David Herdson says: “Time for Britain’s greatest county to stand up”
Whatever it is that makes a nation, Yorkshire has it The folk of God’s Own County tend to be a reticent bunch, not much given to singing their own praises (or indeed, anyone else’s), but as cycling’s greatest race speeds spectacularly over the Broad Acres this weekend – an event the locals have greeted with characteristic enthusiasm and humour – it’s a good occasion to ask whether it should be the next nation within the UK to gain devolved powers. I…
Multiculturalism was buried this week, un-noticed
Via BBC politics. Gove and May's show of unity http://t.co/sZ802GkeQE … pic.twitter.com/IZrrhvoodQ — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) June 9, 2014 The reaction to Trojan Horse has major implications for social policy Most of the reaction and comment to the fallout from the Birmingham schools Trojan Horse affair has centred on the spat between Theresa May and Michael Gove (and their respective departments), on what ‘British values’ means, and on to what extent – if they can be defined – they should be…
How British politics might have been different If Gordon Banks had not had a bug before the 1970 West Germany match
Check out this great counter-factual by UKPR’s Anthony Wells The opening of the 2014 World Cup is a good peg to hang one of the great counter-factuals of politics and football written and created by YouGov’s Anthony Wells and the man who runs UKPollingReport. The basic premise is that the outcome of the 1970 General Election, when the Tories were returned to power, could have been different if England had not been knocked out in the Quarter Final by West…
One Year To Go: How do Dave and Ed compare to their predecessors
With one year to go, I thought it would be useful to track how Ed and Dave compare to their predecessors one year before a General Election. I’ve been using the ratings from Ipsos-Mori that go back nearly forty years and are considered to be the Gold Standards of leader ratings. Looking at the Leader of the Opposition net ratings, sometimes the figures speak for themselves. Only Leaders of the Opposition  with net positive ratings one year have…