Should Gordon be worried about the eulogies to Blair Tucked away in the detail of yesterday’s YouGov poll were the responses to the question “Who would make the best Prime Minister”? When the options were Blair, Cameron and Campbell 79% of Labour voters said Tony with just one per cent naming Cameron But when the same question was asked with Gordon Brown substituted for Tony Blair the proportion of Labour voters going for Brown dropped to 71% with 6% naming…
Is the “Climate Change” debate giving him the opportunity to shine? The Labour leadership has appeared such a certainty for so long that we have barely discussed the “events dear boy – events” scenario of who would be in contention if something untoward happened to Gordon Brown or his campaign. And there’s one figure who has started to pick up support again – David Miliband the young Environment Secretary. As the chart showing best betting prices illustrates there has been…
Could the honours probe blight Labour for months? A report in the Times this morning might, if accurate, dash hopes at Number 10 and in the Labour party that the honours probe could be resolved “by January” – the timing predicted by Assistant Commander Yates in his letter to MPs last month. In an apparent new turn the Times is reporting this morning that the Crown Prosecution Service has advised police to extend their inquiries into “suspected attempts to hamper…
Should punters take note of his reservations on Brown? For the most stinging criticism of the way Downing Street sought to bury yesterday’s news about Tony Blair’s police interview you need go no further than Trevor Kavanagh in the Sun this morning. For the hugely influential political writer for Rupert Murdoch’s best-selling daily paper has no doubts about the spin operation that Number 10 mounted to try to bury the news and he is really gunning for those involved. This…
How will Labour fund itself if the changes go through? It’s beginning to look as though the biggest political fall-out from the “cash/loans for honours” affair is going to be on the way that political parties and future elections are funded. And the latest ideas coming out of the Sir Hayden Phillips inquiry look pretty bad for Labour. For the idea is that every year each of the 3.5 million union members who opt to pay the political levy will…
..why is a Murdoch paper gunning for Gordon? The main highlights from this morning papers are an attack on the US pollster, Frank Luntz, by Nick Cohen in the Observer and a series of critical stories about Gordon Brown in the Sunday Times that, taken together, look as though the paper is turning against him. The Cohen piece under the heading “How a celebrity pollster created Cameron” covers the impact on the Tory leadership contest last year of the famous…
Is the Labour chair in danger of “crying wolf”? Clearly, and perhaps we should say thankfully, not everybody studies electoral mathematics with the same intensity as visitors to PBC. But you would have thought that Hazel Blears, chair of the Labour party, would have a broad view of the situation when, as she has done this weekend, she sends out a letter to party members. Of course it is her duty to keep the party at large in a state…
Are the stakes getting higher for Assistant Commander Yates too? According to Independent this morning Downing Street has been pressing hard for Tony Blair to be treated as a witness and not a suspect when Assistant Commander John Yates holds his expected interview with the PM in the next week or so. Everything comes down to whether Yates decides that Blair should be given a caution at the start of the interview – a decision which could have a huge…