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Category: Labour

Are Lib Dem voters still being loyal to Gordon?

Are Lib Dem voters still being loyal to Gordon?

Will today’s YouGov data give a better pointer to tactical voting? Detailed data from the October YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph, due out sometime today, should provide an indication of how tactical voting might impact on the next General Election. The poll, it will be recalled had a CON 46% – Lab 33% split to the question “If you had to choose, which would you prefer to see after the next election, a Conservative Government led by David Cameron…

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What should Gordon do about McDonnell?

What should Gordon do about McDonnell?

The illustration, with its imagery of the protests against the Iraq war, is the masthead from the campaign website of the only person so far to declare that he is standing for the Labour Leadership – the Hayes and Harlington MP and former Deputy to Ken Livingstone on the old GLC, John McDonnell. With much less being heard about a Reid or Johnson challenge the chances are that he could be the only alternative to Brown when next year’s race…

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Will the loans affair eventually bring Blair down?

Will the loans affair eventually bring Blair down?

Why is Cameron going easy with Blair on the succession? The main political story in the Sunday Times this morning is of developments in the police “loans for peerages” investigation that could blight the final months of Tony Blair’s time at Number 10 and impact on his departure time-table. According to the paper Labour’s chief fundraiser, Lord Levy, “has implicated Tony Blair as the key figure in the cash-for-honours scandal, a well-placed source has revealed.” Levy is said to have…

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Guest slot: Ian Jones on who will be next Chancellor

Guest slot: Ian Jones on who will be next Chancellor

Who’s going to win the battle for Number 11? These are my thoughts on the subject from a betting perspective. Alistair Darling: The Trade & Industry Secretary is an arch Brownite, and has for a long while been one of the favorites to be the next Chancellor. Currently available on Betfair to back at 2.5/1, or to lay from 2.75/1. Darling could conceivably be the next Chancellor, but the current prices don’t tempt me either way at present. Ed Balls:…

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Before “adjustment” Labour’s ICM deficit was 14%

Before “adjustment” Labour’s ICM deficit was 14%

How a device to deal with shy Tories gives Brown’s party a 4% boost If it’s any consolation today’s ICM poll in the Guardian could have been much much worse for Blair-Brown but for the pollster’s final adjustment that was introduced after the 1992 General Election to deal with the phenomenon of “shy Tories”. For instead of the CON 39%: LAB 29%: LD 22% headline figures that have been reported the shares were CON 41% – LAB 27%. For what…

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Is this the ticket that secures the unions for Gordon?

Is this the ticket that secures the unions for Gordon?

Is a deal being struck so Brown’s backing Cruddas? In all the discussion on Labour’s leadership elections far too little attention has been paid to what’s driving the third element in the party’s electoral structure – the trade unions. For after years of being half-ignored by Downing Street the union bosses appear determined to put their thumb-prints on the Labour succession if only, at the very least, to assert their key role in the Labour movement. Given that the outcome…

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Can this man stop the threat to Labour’s finances?

Can this man stop the threat to Labour’s finances?

How the Tory political funding plan screws Labour By an extraordinary coincidence I found myself sharing a bottle of wine on a train out of St. Pancras last night with the man who is playing a key role on the subject that I had decided to write about this morning – the Tory threat to Labour’s funding. This is Tony Dubbins, a leading Labour movement figure for several decades and now chair of the body that links the trade unions…

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Will they ever be able to make Gordon voter-friendly?

Will they ever be able to make Gordon voter-friendly?

How can Labour get him to loosen up a bit? The scene should be a happy one for the man most likely to be the next Labour leader. He’s there amongst enthusiastic supporters who are pleased to see him yet he stiffens up and appears aloof apparently unwilling or unable to engage with those around him. If he is like this amongst committed Labour supporters how is he going to be with the less committed – the groups Labour needs…

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