Is Alan Johnson really Labour’s last chance? …and could Paul Moore bring down the PM? Under the title “Only Johnson can hold back the Tories” (I initially wondered if he was referring to Boris), the Independent’s commentator argues that Alan Johnson could be the man to save Labour from its impending electoral doom. I suspect that Labour has one last chance to avoid a crushing loss at the next election, which is why it is interesting that Alan Johnson, the…
CONSERVATIVES 44% (+1) LABOUR 32% (nc) LIB DEMS 14% (-2) And the online pollster has the LDs going down So the second of tonight’s polls is now out – YouGov for the Sunday Times – and is showing a very different picture from the ComRes survey announced earlier and the previous ICM and Populus polls. The telephone pollsters – ICM, Populus and ComRes had all reported increases in the Lib Dem shares and Labour in the 20s. YouGov has the…
CONSERVATIVES 41% (-2) LABOUR 25% (-3) LIB DEMS 22% (+6) A third poll shows a surge for Clegg’s party In what is a sensational poll the February survey from ComRes for the Indy on Sunday reports a huge increase in the Lib Dem shares, a further fall-off for Labour and the Tories still comfortably in 40s. A week ago when ICM had the Lib Dems up to 22% the initial reaction was that the survey might have been an outlier…
Could Ed Balls be the best value outside bet? John Rentoul on the Independent’s new blog platform has written an epic two-part feature for GQ magazine on Ed Balls’ apparent ambitions to be leader of his party (see part I and part II). He acknowledges that the idea might seem preposterous to many, and quotes a aide to former Prime Minister Tony Blair: Until recently, this has been a ridiculous prospect. I couldn’t even finish the question before one aide…
A note from Peter the Punter One of our regular posters, Andrew Woodman [Woody 622], has contacted me with the suggestion that a number of PBers may be interested in forming a Syndicate to lease a racehorse. The Syndicate he has in mind is organised under the title of Koo’s racing club, and full details may be obtained from the website www.koos-racing-club.com We have a particular horse in mind. It is an unraced two year old bay gelding by Xaar…
Whose going to be convinced that Labour now gets it? I’ve played this brief YouTube piece by John Prescott several times and I’m none the wiser. What’s the point of it? Why is Labour going to all this trouble to prove that that somehow the party understands and is fully embracing the new media? My guess is that it’s is in response to a growing feeling within the movement that this is an area where Labour lags behind the Tories….
Cartoon first published on December 11 2008 Is “She” the shorthand for the end of NuLab? A key media development in the past eight weeks has been the regularity with which programmes makers and writers have looked to former Woolworths employees, almost all of them women, to illustrate what’s gone wrong with the economy. BBC2’s Newsnight did it again last night. So while “Mondeo Man” and “Worcester Woman” might have defined key voters in recent elections the 2009/2010 general version…
Guest slot: Rod Crosby on the Tory “Tough Nuts” When punters and pundits try to forecast the next election they usually turn to basic swingometers of the Baxter or Wells variety. There is nothing wrong with that, provided we accept these simple tools are really only capable of forecasting the broad “shape†of the result, and not exact seat totals. Nor are they capable of making reliable predictions for individual seats. More sophisticated analysis of Nationalist and LibDem performance, and…