What if Brown becomes “The Chancellor of the World” An idea has been buzzing round my head all night and the more I think about it the more it sounds like a plausible theory that could totally overturn current thinking about the general election. It might be recalled that in February Jackie Ashley in the Guardian floated an idea of Brown becoming a “a new global financial supremo” linked possibly to the IMF – a rumour that she said then…
Can the new government confound the doomsayers? [Please use the thread above for UK politics – many thanks.] It goes without saying that the main international event this week has been the G20 summit, but important events were also occurring in the country whose nominal GDP is ranked at a lowly 42nd (or 43rd if you prefer the IMF list to the World Bank’s), as Israel finally managed to put together a new government, seven weeks after the February election….
Are Summits Suffering from Attention Deficit? For the ten presidents, fourteen prime ministers and one king who attended the G20 summit in London it’s generally been a very successful week. All look to have got much of what they wanted from the final communique, there have been some excellent photo-opportunities which will play well to domestic audiences, there’s been welcome progress on other topics – such as the nuclear arms limitation talks between the US and Russia – and it…
Coffee House Once again… can she survive?… and is Darling in trouble too? From James Forsyth at the Spectator’s Coffee House blog: “These revelations are so damaging because they will lead to the voters just laughing at the government. When the electorate rages at a government, its members can at least console themselves they are being taken seriously. But when they are being mocked, there is no such consolation… Labour should prepare itself for a year that will be even…
Will an early poll follow on from the Labour surge? Although the chances of a 2009 election here in the UK may still be slim, by contrast the odds on one across the Irish sea have considerably shortened of late. Paddy Power had quoted 2009 at a meagre 11/10, but this has been slashed to just 1/2 in recent weeks. With Harper surviving the budget vote in Canada and Karamanlis still clinging on in Greece, Ireland is near the top…
Wikipedia International leaders to keep an eye on as the year unfolds 3. LK Advani (BJP, India) The US may claim to be the world’s greatest democracy, but India has no rivals as the world’s biggest. This massive country will hold the world’s longest general election this spring, with voting taking place from 16 April to 13 May – and in terms of leaders could also be the world’s oldest matchup, with current PM Manmohan Singh of Congress, 76, facing…
When the music stops, will it be Likud and the Right? So, President Peres has asked Benjamin Netanyahu to try to form a government (he is now a formateur in Dutch / Belgian parlance), despite the fact that Likud finished second at the election – he has 42 days to do so. The immediate post-election posturing and positioning is over, Lieberman has returned from his holiday in Belarus and recommended Bibi for PM, and the real business of government formation…
Kadima win the election but look set to lose the battle for PM So, in the end, the oft-derided Israeli exit polls were right, with Kadima having a very narrow seat lead, beating Likud 28-27, but for the opinion pollsters this proved to be a “1992”, with Likud leading virtually all the polls and some by wide margins. Unlike in previous elections, the counting of the double envelope votes from the military, diplomats etc didn’t improve the showing of Likud…