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Category: Gordon Brown

Is this how Iraq could play out during the campaign?

Is this how Iraq could play out during the campaign?

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Question Time BBC1 – Click to watch Was Hain’s discomfiture a taste of what’s to come? Anybody who followed the previous thread will have got a taste of the passions and anger that were aroused by the discussion on Labour and Iraq on last night’s BBC Question Time programme. It takes up the first twenty minutes and is well worth watching. Already it has prompted that arch-Blair defender, the Indy’s John Rentoul, to blog with his misgiving about how the…

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Could the pledge card work again for Labour?

Could the pledge card work again for Labour?

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How will 1997 tactics go down in 2010? One of the simple but effective campaign tools that Labour has used in its last three elections has been the pledge card – and given the results in 1997, 2001, and 2005 who can blame them for looking at the idea again. When it first appeared it was symbolic of the new professional communication approach that Tony Blair’s New Labour seemed to embody. It comes over as positive politics and puts the…

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Can Brown avoid being dragged into this?

Can Brown avoid being dragged into this?

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Was Campbell being unhelpful to Tony’s successor? On the face of it the Iraq inquiry is now a side-show to the big political drama in the UK – the fight by Labour to stop the Tories winning an outright majority in the coming general election. Labour’s key players at the time – Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell – have now moved on though it’s said that the latter is playing a behind the scenes role in supporting Mr. Brown. So…

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How will the Tories use the Watts’ claims?

How will the Tories use the Watts’ claims?

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SkyNews Is the rest of the media going to pick this up? The big thing when there is a Sunday political exclusive like the Mail on Sunday’s serialisation of the Peter Watts’ book, Inside Out, is whether the story has “legs”. Will other papers and the TV news channels run with it as well and how long will it dominate the headlines? Well, as above, SkyNews is playing it big and no doubt it will be a key element in…

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Can we look forward to a slimmed-down Brown?

Can we look forward to a slimmed-down Brown?

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  Where does the real power now lie? In one sense, Gordon Brown was right: it was all a bit of a storm in a teacup. A couple of former ministers called for a vote on Brown’s leadership and the overwhelming majority of Labour MP’s didn’t come out to support that call. Result: Brown win. However, by the same token, neither were MP’s and ministers rushing to man the defences of the PM. If Brown is to lead Labour into…

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Why was Mandy stuck for words?

Why was Mandy stuck for words?

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Does no change at No. 10 mean back Balls? Thanks to Miranda Richardson on her Sky blog for highlighting the fairly equivocal responses by Peter Mandelson to the last couple of questions in this short interview. If this week was supposed to have produced a change of approach from Number 10 then why was the business secretary less than forthright in his closing responses. The conclusion, surely, is that Brown has won, there will be no real change in Labour’s…

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Do the LDs gain most from the plot’s failure?

Do the LDs gain most from the plot’s failure?

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Would replacing Brown be bad news for Clegg? Thanks to Ryans on a previous thread for highlighting the detailed finding in the week’s first YouGov poll on the party split when respondents were asked if they would be more or less likely to vote Labour if Brown was replaced. Normally I think we should be quite sceptical about such questions and I don’t think we should read too much into the scale of potential switching. But one thing stands out…

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Did Darling tell Brown to quit?

Did Darling tell Brown to quit?

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This is from the blog of the excellent Iain Martin of the Wall Street Journal:- “…the crucial meeting yesterday afternoon was between the chancellor and Gordon Brown. Alistair Darling and Brown were alone together; they were the only two in the room. But extraordinary rumors are emerging about what was said. I’ve heard from two Labour sources now that the conversation was very difficult and that Darling raised the possibility of Brown going, but the PM resisted. It would be…

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