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The election that saw Anthony Eden’s victory for the Tories When the House of Lords voted to allow the broadcasting of their work in the House of Peers (which led to the broadcasting of the House of Commons), I doubt any of them paid attention to the question “What happens when we’re not at work?”. Well, in this age of multi channel television, BBC Parliament (who holds the responsibility of broadcasting Parliamentary activities) came across a corker of an idea….

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So what about the minor parties? One feature of the past 10 years has been the growing willingness of the voters to vote for minor parties. This has been seen at both local level, and at Parliamentary level, with the election of Dr. Richard Taylor, George Galloway, and Peter Law in 2005. These are not old-style Independents (often Conservatives by another name), nor are they the Residents and Ratepayers Associations that still feature in some authorities. They are more likely…

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Is Cameron’s soundbite giving publicity to a bunch of unknowns? These three men are the leaders of a grouping that in the heady days days of 2004 look set to make a big impact on UK politics. Their party, UKIP, had come third in the UK Euro Elections in June 2004 beating the Lib Dems and coming only six per cent behind Labour on votes. Three months later they beat the Tories into for the third place slot in the…

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Are there 45 MPs who will sign up for the Chancellor to be challenged? The rules governing Labour’s leadership election will give Tony Blair at least two votes when he finally decides to step down from the job or he’s forced out. The first will be as an MP who have a third of the influence in the electoral college. The second will be as an ordinary constituency member and he’ll have a possible third vote if he still belongs…

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A novice punter on out how it works I’ve enjoyed reading PB.C much longer than I’ve been placing bets on elections, so until a few months ago I was mystified by some of the phrases and odds given in the posts. When I made serious effort to find out what it all meant I was able to get a lot more from the posts and comments, so hopefully I can now return the favour to others. Rather than laboriously go…

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How much are the local by-election results a pointer? It’s often been said that local by-elections only affect a maximum of 1,000 people at any one time (and even less than that if turnout is poor) and is only of any real use to the people who study local elections for national electoral implications. Well, do excuse me if I sound like a rather set in my way Victorian gentleman but “that view is arrant poppycock!”. Local by-elections give a…

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WHAT OF THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS? The modern Liberal revival began in local government, with the capture of Finchley in the late 1950s. Decade by decade, Liberal (and then Alliance) support on local councils grew steadily, until by the mid 1990s, the Liberal Democrats had 50 local councils under their control, and more local councillors than the Conservatives. Typically, Liberal Democrats gains came in areas of long-standing Conservative support (although there were exceptions like Liverpool, Tower Hamlets and Southwark). Recently, the…

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Dealing with the new politics – will Labour be third on May 4th? It’s 80 days since Charles Kennedy quit as Liberal Democrat leader, plunging the party into its January mensis horribilis. Opinion poll ratings dipped as low as 13%, the Daily Telegraph splashed its front page with a report that the party was in ‘freefall’, and several over-hyped and under-sourced rumours alleged three Lib Dem MPs were poised to defect to David Cameron’s shiny new Tories. Then came the…

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