A new regular column focusing on the international scene Welcome to what’s planned to be a regular Sunday evening column, partly inspired by Sean Fear’s excellent Friday articles on UK politics. I can’t promise that this column will be quite as regular as Sean’s, but the plan is for it to come out fortnightly if possible and we’ll see how it goes. The “mission statement” for the column will be to focus primarily on international politics, outside the PB mainstays…
“Il Cavaliere” down to 1.3 on Betfair – can Veltroni stop him? Double Carpet looks at Italian politics ahead of the election Italy goes to the polls next Sunday and Monday, and following hot on the heels of the Spanish election, it provides a good “compare and contrastâ€. Since 1983 there have been only three Prime Ministers in Spain (Gonzalez, Aznar, Zapatero), and indeed only three French Presidents, three German Chancellors, and four occupants each in Downing Street and the…
The Teflon Taoiseach calls it a day – Finance Minister Cowen 1.06 to succeed him Irish politics is set for major change following Bertie Ahern’s announcement today that he will step down as Prime Minister and Fianna Fáil leader on 6th May. Ahern has been a giant of the modern Irish scene, having been Taoiseach since 1997 and the first three-time election winner since De Valera, as well as playing a major role in the peace process in Northern Ireland….
With 65% after 20% counted, even 1.01 would have been a value bet Medvedev will be youngest President, may win all 84 regions of the Federation Now that voting has closed in Kaliningrad Oblast, the westernmost region of the Russian Federation’s 11 time zones, the exit polls have unsurprisingly proclaimed Dmitry Medvedev the winner by a landslide. Communist candidate Zyuganov is currently just below 20%, while Vladimir Zhirinovsky is at 12.5%. Medvedev’s current vote share is some six points below…
Will the Stop-Blair coalition get its way? I was slightly reticent about doing this story because the words “Tony Blair” and “European Union” don’t bring out the best in parts of the PBC community. But why not because there is lots of coverage today about Tony Blair’s desire to try to become President of Europe and the coalition of interests that is lining up to try to stop him. Rod Liddle in the Spectator notes that “..the former PM has…
Who’ll be the winner Down Under in Saturday’s election? So have all the polls been right and are Labor under Kevin Rudd on course for their first win since 1993 – or can Howard still salvage a fifth term for the Coalition? As with the July by-elections competition, this will once again be by “secret ballot” although there is no Excel spreadsheet this time. Do not put your predictions in the thread below or they will not count – please…
Australia Decides 2007 – Part 1 Since John Howard asked the Governor-General for an election on Saturday 24 November, we have seen the first two weeks of the 2007 Australian election campaign, and in short – Rudd is retaining his substantial lead in the polls, and he has been the net “winner” of the campaign to date. Since the start of the 6 week campaign, John Howard and Kevin Rudd have released their tax policies (both proposing substantial cuts), and…
Switzerland votes on Sunday in its most bitter election for decades UK update at end of article Swiss politics has often been seen as boring (to put it unkindly), although “stable” might be a more diplomatic term. Like Cuba, there was no change in the party makeup of the government between 1959 and 2003 – and if a party’s vote share moved by 2% from one election to the next in the 1970s or 80s that was a lot. As…