Political Betting Book Launch Party Tuesday 17th April – 3pm to 7pm National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place SW1 OK, we stuffed up. Apparently the House of Commons won’t allow commercial ventures in its hallowed halls – and so launching a book on gambling is right out! So we have decamped to the National Liberal Club. Liberals, it seems, are a lot less fussy. We’ve had to put the date back a day, so please revisit your diaries. I will email…
Examining the details from last week’s ICM and YouGov polls We have had to wait nearly a week for this but these are the details from the poll that has been the talk of Westminster and which has promoted a big change in the Brown price in the Labour leadership betting market. The ICM full data is from the survey last Tuesday that showed Labour 13% behind if Gordon Brown is named as leader against Cameron’s Tories and Ming’s Lib…
Will the climate change sceptic win the Peers’ Tory by election? There’s a by election going on at the moment for a place in parliament which has hardly been covered in the media but which, potentially, could cause a problem for David Cameron. There are 43 candidates fighting it out to win the support from an electorate of just 47 different people and the result is due the week after next. At stake is one of the hereditary Tory places…
Can Labour Retain the North Kent Marginals? One of the funniest sights at the last election was watching Bob Marshall-Andrews conceding defeat in Medway, only to find out later that he’d retained the seat by 223 votes. This set the pattern in North Kent, as Labour managed to cling on to the marginal seats of Chatham & Aylesford, Sittingbourne & Sheppey, Gillingham, Dartford, and, of course, Medway. In four of these seats, the Labour majority was less than a thousand….
Is Hoggart right about the exit? A throwaway line at the end of this morning’s Commons sketch by Simon Hoggart in the Guardian has got me thinking about Tony Blair and when he will step down. For when asked at PMQs yesterday what he hoped to be remembered for Hoggart notes the “extraordinary” fact that Blair ..”didn’t have anything prepared… he hasn’t worked out what his own legacy is..I’ll believe he’s going when he goes.” Usually a good litmus test…
I’ve been trying to update a few things. Unfortunately, my meddling seems to have meant that Peter the Punter’s column is unavailable for comment! Hopefully everything else should be working fine, and normal service should soon be resumed. PLEASE USE THE LINK HERE FOR COMNMENTS ON PETER’S BRANDiNDEX PREDICTIONS
Who’ll win and who’ll lose from the new way of casting your ballot? In the continued effort to improve voter turnout the Government is staging a number of experiments with different voting methodologies for the May 3rd local elections. Among them is internet voting. These are the different tests involving the internet:- Rushmoor Borough – Remote internet voting the week before polling and on polling day Sheffield City – Remote internet and telephone voting the week before polling Shrewsbury and…
Peter Stands in for Sean Fear The by-elections held this week covered very different parts of the UK. Flintshire is in North Wales, but home to many commuters to Chester, Manchester and Liverpool. Burnley – where two of the by-elections fought this week took place is a former mill town, of the type where the BNP have their biggest following. Huntingdonshire is (rather confusingly) a beautiful part of Cambridgeshire, where John Major would see spinsters cycing to church through the…