Normal service resumed The call of the Cheltenham Festival came too soon and loud for me to produce a piece last week but I trust that you are now all fully aware that, following on from the minor hiccup the previous week, we took extreme retribution on IG and more than doubled our profits to date with a remarkable 11.3 profit (£113 to a £10 stake). Week ended 8th March 2007 Tony Blair – Buy 1 point at 55.0 Score…
ICM puts Labour 15% behind with Brown The March ICM poll for the Guardian tomorrow gives the Tories their biggest share from the pollster since August 1992 and has the worst figures ever for Labour’s would-be leader, Gordon Brown. The main voting intention shares with changes on the last ICM poll nine days ago are: CON 41% (+1): LAB 31% (+2): LD 18% (-3). But when the named leader question was put – which party would respondents support in a…
The above shows the fluctuating betting price on Brown for the Labour leadership over the past few days. As can be seen the sentiment is once again moving to the Chancellor. As this gets closer and Gordon’s election looks even more inevitable then the price will get tighter. In the past month I’ve bet £1100 on Brown at an average 0.255/1. This evening that is looking good. Mike Smithson
Has the left-winger been helped by the Trident rebellion? A comment on today’s thread by Pimpernel, who is usually well-informed about Labour affairs, suggests that the left-winger who was first to declare for the leadership, John McDonnell, looks set to get the required 44 nominations to be on the ballot alongside Brown. Pimpernel wrote: “I was told last night that John McDonnell is almost certain now to get enough nominations to stand, but that Meacher is likely to fall short….
The chancellor beats Cameron in the latest Newsnight focus group Following his “focus group” that was screened on Newsnight at the start of the 2005 Tory party conference the features by the US Republican pollster, Frank Luntz, have become significant political events. That one, arugably, played a key part in Cameron’s eventual victory in the party leadership contest. The last session, during the Labour conference in September, had Luntz asking those taking part to compare Brown with other potential candidates…
The Strange Death of Labour England I, and others, have commented on Labour’s ongoing decline in local government representation. What is striking, however, is just how much of England the Labour Party has now disappeared from. There are now 69 English local authorities without any Labour representation whatsoever, compared to 37 without any Liberal Democrat councillors, and 19 without any Conservatives. Councils without any Labour representation are mostly district councils, some of which are very rural. There are however, 6…
But will the main parties come to a deal? Sir Hayden Phillips’ report on party funding is at last out and leaves a lot of questions to be resolved. The big issue is whether the parties themselves can agree to spending limits on specifix campaigns and caps on individual donations. The challenge is that each of the parites comes at this from a different stand-point. The Tories have now wiped off their debts and by all reports are fundraising very…
Can he be blamed for something his great grand-father did? After the big coverage of the Quentin Letts call for Jack Straw to enter the Labour leadership race the First Post’s “The Mole” – described as a “Downing Street insider – is out rubbishing the suggestion this afternoon. Under the heading “Six reasons why it won’t be Straw” our so-called “insider” tells us at number five about the alleged misdeeds of the former Foreign Secretary’s great-grandfather. So what? You get…