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Why have the key by-election records “gone missing”? The Glenrothes by election last November was critical to the personal standing of the prime minister. The constituency is adjacent to Gordon’s, both he and his wife campaigned there, and the Labour candidate and now MP was the head of the school where Gordon went. The fact that the Prime Minister became so associated with the Labour campaign was highly unusual and was seen as a big political risk. The only opinion…

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Traffic up more than a third on January 2008 The number of page downloads by PB users in January was 2,043,872 which compares with 1,272,458 in the same month in 2008. PB’s discussion threads continued to be the leading forum on any UK political site. There were 31,067 commentsduring the month taking the total to 925,809 since the site started on March 23rd 2004. We’ll hit the million mark at some stage in the next few months but I don’t…

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…who shall be the ‘glorious sun of York’? The phrase ‘the Winter of Discontent’ is perhaps now better known to describe the political demise of the Callaghan government and subsequent victory of Margeret Thatcher in 1979 than the misquoted opening line of Shakespeare’s Richard III whence it came. It captured, and still does, a deep misery – the feeling of a spiralling towards catastrophe that media pundits are trying to re-ignite in the face of a global depression, wildcat strikes and what…

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Brown 24.9.07: “ create British jobs for British workers” Cast your mind back to September 24th 2007. The first Brown Bounce was at its peak. The polls being taken that week were to show double digit leads for Labour. The talk was all about an October or November general election and Gordon Brown rose to make his first speech to a Labour conference as party leader. And what were his plans? What was his vision? Well one extract made all…

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Would this destroy the Lib Dems forever Reproduced about is the start of a big article in the latest News Statesman by Sunder Katwala, General Secretary of the Fabian Society, in which he argues for a pre-election LD-LAB pact which would involve Nick Clegg becoming Deputy Prime Minister. He argues: “..By the time Barack Obama leaves these shores in April, Gordon Brown should invite Nick Clegg to be deputy prime minister with Vince Cable as chancellor. The coalition would govern…

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What chance has she of becoming President? With Obama having being in office for only eight days Sarah Palin has made a move that is being seen as the first step to a run for the presidency in 2012. It might seem a long way off but campaigns planing has to start early and Palin appears to want to ensure that her party is aware of her ambition. Her move has been to create a formal Political Action Committee which…

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CONSERVATIVES 43% (+2) LABOUR 28% (-4) LIB DEMS 16% (+1) Brown’s party now trailing by 15 points As ConservativeHome has broken the embargo I will do so as well. Tim Montgomerie should not have done that. See note below. The ComRes poll for tomorrow’s Indy is now out and will add to the gloom at Brown Central. For the party’s share is down to 28% – the first time it has dropped below the 30 mark in any poll from…

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