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Category: General

Can Civil Liberties have an impact?

Can Civil Liberties have an impact?

Today, I will be joining around 1,000 participants nationwide at the Convention on Modern Liberty – a conference of speakers and activists from across the political spectrum who share a concern about the direction with respect to our basic rights and liberties. Although not an automatic adherent, I acknowledge that we now live in a society that is becoming ever more scary from this particular perspective, and am interested to see what some of the great thinkers of the age…

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Who’ll win the Brown-Goodwin pension stand-off?

Who’ll win the Brown-Goodwin pension stand-off?

Take the 6/1 that Fred’s pension will be cut I’ve just put £100 on at 6/1 with William Hill that the former RBS boss, Sir Fred Goodwin will accept a cut in his much publicised pension entitlement. The bet is that he will either do so voluntarily or be forced to do so by the end of the year. There’s so much political pressure on Brown that the chances of Goodwin being unable to brazen it out must be better…

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The Tories down 3 points with YouGov

The Tories down 3 points with YouGov

Updated CON 41(-3) LAB 31(-1) LD 15(+1) But there’s still a double digit lead? The Daily Telegraph’s YouGov survey for February is just out and as predicted on the previous thread is showing a 10 point Tory lead. The changes are all within the margin of error though they do offer a spot of comfort to Labour. Interestingly the best poll findings for Brown’s party are coming from the on-line pollster at the moment and the margin is the smallest…

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Update on the PB Racehorse Syndicate

Update on the PB Racehorse Syndicate

A note from Peter the Punter A few weeks back I floated here the idea of a PB racehorse syndicate and I am glad to say that there were enough responses to justify going ahead. The horse in question is currently unnamed but is likely to be called either Political Punter or Tsar Louis (being by Xaar out of Amanda Louise). It is apparently very forward in its training and is therefore likely to be racing soon, quite possibly at…

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Our thoughts are with the Camerons

Our thoughts are with the Camerons

Sky News Rightly normal politics are on hold As most people are no doubt aware David Cameron’s son, Ivan, died in the early hours of the morning at St Mary’s hospital in Paddington. Gordon Brown has sent his condolences and political activity has been suspended for the day. There will be no PMQs at midday. I find myself very moved by the news which strikes very hard. To lose a child is a terrible tragedy and who knows what David…

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Lib Dems drop to 18% in new ICM poll

Lib Dems drop to 18% in new ICM poll

CON 42(+2) LAB 30(+2) LD 18(-4) …and Labour is back in the 30s again – just! Well after the excitement of the last ICM and ComRes polls that had the Lib Dems at 22% the latest survey from ICM for the Guardian has the party at 18 points – with both Labour and the Tories showing a 2 point increase on the last survey from the firm a week an a half ago. So the gap between the main parties…

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“The next Labour leader is destined to be a loser…”

“The next Labour leader is destined to be a loser…”

Sunday Telegraph “…This is Slumdog Labour Leader” There’s an excellent piece by Matthew D’Ancona in the Sunday Telegraph today in which he looks at the nascent contest to succeed Brown and argues that it is “ferocious, precisely because the outcome matters so little”. After rolling off the stream of recent leadership pretenders, he goes on: “….This, I confidently predict, is only the beginning. Many more names will be suggested in this “potential leader speed dating”, some even more ridiculous than…

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Has Gord won the Euro-Obama race?

Has Gord won the Euro-Obama race?

BBC News online Has Gord slipped in ahead of Angela and Nicholas? One of the speciality betting markets that was opened on January 20th – the day of Obama’s inauguration- was which of Europe’s Big 3 leaders would be first to get a face to face meeting. Brown was favourite and if tonight’s announcement is anything to go by then Brown backers look set to win. But could there be something from Sarkozy or Merkel in the background that hasn’t…

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