Which party will benefit most? So the cat is out of the bag as Prince William announces he is to marry Kate Middleton sometime in the spring or summer of next year, but what impact does a Royal Wedding have on the politics of the nation? Since regular polling started in 1946 there have been eight royal weddings (which I class as where members of the Royal Family as defined by Buckingham Palace have married in either a civil, religious…
BBC news Wow. What a big news day with the Royal Engagement, the announcement that Cameron’s “vanity staff” are going off the public pay-roll and, of course, the Irish/Euro crisis. Will it be the latter that has the most lasting significance? How serious are the problems facing Ireland and what will be the impact in the UK? With the full-time president of the EU talking about the threat to the overall structure and talk of of a new credit crunch…
Iain Dale has announced on his blog that he’s given £100 to the Phil Woolas defence fund because he believes that voters, not judges should decide elections. But what does he think of this from a court ruling in 1911 and which featured in the Woolas judgement. “The primary protection of this statute was the protection of the constituency against acts which would be fatal to freedom of election. There would be no true freedom of election, no real expression…
by Jonathan with his Second Sunday Slot As the shockwaves of the credit crunch reverberate around the world, anger dominates the political agenda. Faced with public outrage, what should a politician do? Should they fight it, ignore it or try to re-direct that energy into the ballot box? The Tea Party proved that angry politics can work. The Republicans successfully harnessed anger over the economy to win control of the House. It was a remarkable turnaround considering the extent of…
What would being a by-election loser do to her career? One person who is being strongly tipped to be Labour’s candidate in Oldham East and Saddleworth is 36 year old Lucy Powell of whom great things were being said before the May 6th general election. She’s not a local but from South Manchester and was candidate in Manchester Withington – a seat which Labour felt pretty confident of taking back after the shock loss to the Lib Dems in 2005….
What will the impact of the next economic storms be? The coming and going of the G20 this week without any meaningful progress on currencies, trade imbalances or indeed anything much else is hardly a surprise. The immediate global crises of the credit crunch and recession are over and there are too many conflicting interests to get a serious deal done in a couple of days, even with preparation beforehand. That’s a missed opportunity because this week’s seen some strong…
Will there be let up in the pace of change? It was May 11th 2010, my 64th birthday in fact, that the coalition was formed and David Cameron replaced Gordon Brown at Number 10. So today we reach the six month mark and what a half year that has been. Whether you agree with what’s been proposed or not you cannot deny that the pace of change has been breath-taking. I cannot in my life-time remember such a period of…
Our database server will be switched this evening. Hopefully no-one will notice anything at all… but if we’re down, you know to blame me! Thanks Robert