politicalbetting.com

Should Clegg’s troops should have more distinctiveness? The old Liberal Party nearly went out of existence in the 1950s but in the years that followed staged a recovery based round a distinctive localism, a sense of being outside the establishment and the caricature of a politician and of them being the ‘nice’ party. If you have no chance of power nationally, you have to offer the electorate something else. A ‘more pleasant and more local’ way of doing politics was…

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PoliticsHome The updated mega poll is due within a fortnight I’ve just had word that the fieldwork for the 2009 Politics Home mega marginals poll has been completed and we should get it in early October. It is on the same scale as the 2008 September version which covered more than 34,000 separate online interviews in a total of 238 parliamentary constituencies where the big battles at the next election are going to be fought. The sample was seventeen times…

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BBC News Take the 9/4 that she’ll have to go William Hill have just opened a market on whether the troubled attorney-general, Baroness Scotland, will resign or be sacked before the end of the year. This is not yet available online but you can place the bet over the phone. I was allowed a maximum of £75. The Baroness, of course, is in a spot of bother after being fined £5,000 for employing a housekeeper who was not legally allowed…

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This is the first cartoon by PB’s cartoonist, Marf, for several months. She has been missed. Mike Smithson

Smart move or a sign of weakness?

Could “open primaries” de-motivate activists? Iain Dale, who was chairman, has produced his own version of last night’s events in Bedford on his own blog. It paints an upbeat picture of the event to select a Tory candidate for next month’s by mayoral by-election with an electorate of 100,000, Iain did a good job in difficult circumstances and very much held the event together. He was watched over by Tory chairman, Eric Pickles, who, it should be noted, blanked me…

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CON 41 (+3) LAB 27% (+1) LD 18 (-2) Now all the firms have them in the 40s This the first public survey for the Times by the firm since mid-July and clearly the comparisons above reflect that. The numbers are very much in line with all the other firms and show that there’s been very little movement during the summer. Populus operates in a manner that’s very similar to ICM and, indeed, the firm usually uses ICM call centres…

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