For Labour’s sake, Tony Blair must go now Regular readers of this site will know that I am not one of New Labour’s greatest fans. In fact, I would be happy to see the Labour Party go the same way as the Liberals in the 1920s. Nonetheless, I am not being cynical in offering my opinion that the sooner Tony Blair goes, the better for Labour. Tony Blair’s own opinion poll ratings are dreadful. YouGov’s BrandIndex and MORI are at…
Is it too late for a timetable? You usually feel like a circling vulture when a politician announces at short notice that a “statement” is on its way. But Tony Blair’s announcement yesterday felt underwhelming in the circumstances. A month ago, say, the news that Blair would certainly be gone 12 months from now would probably have been enough to convince the rebels that they should more or less hold their tongues until then. This week’s catharsis, though, gives the…
Does Tony actually want to hold on? You all read the news, but to state the obvious, it’s been a bad couple of days for Tony Blair. The string of resignations, even if all but one were Parliamentary Private Secretaries (not even members of the government, strictly speaking) hasn’t robbed the government of its most respected figures, but gives a pretty good impression of chaos. Blair’s allies plead for “a dignified departure”, which seems to mean setting a date sometime…
Would Blair prefer a quick exit to a humiliating timetable? After some relatively eclectic topics last week, let’s return to a favourite of this site and to British political coverage as a whole: the succession to Tony Blair. As usual, Blair is being asked to set a timetable for his departure, and refusing to, to the general unhappiness of Brownites and the Labour left; neither the TUC or the Labour conference is likely to give him a smooth ride. The…
A guest contribution from Andrea At the beginning of August the Labour NEC election results for the CLPs division were announced. Members can elect six members to the party ruling body and 16 candidates were contesting the election: the two main slates, “Grassroots Alliance†(the Left wing slate) and “Labour First†(the so called “loyalist†slate), were joined in the race by a handful of independent candidates. The result showed 4 candidates (Black, Shawcroft, Willsman and Wolfgang) from Grassroots Alliance…
One of the bigger political stories in last Sunday’s press was Blairite former cabinet minister Stephen Byers‘s call in the Sunday Telegraph for Labour to abolish inheritance tax as “a penalty for hard work, thrift and enterprise”. Perhaps predictably, this didn’t go down well with Brownites; the Guardian reported Alastair Darling and other allies of the Chancellor as “stamping on” the idea, before, after or perhaps simultaneous with giving it a “blistering riposte”. In fact, almost no one at all…
ICM find that only 37% think he’s created Britain’s economic success The Guardian publishes more data this morning from its August ICM poll and focuses on the Labour’s record generally, and Gordon Brown’s performance in particular, in running the economy for the past nine and a bit years. In findings that might have an impact on the Labour succession the pollster records that those surveyed split by 37%-52% on whether they thought Brown had been responsible for Britain’s economic success….
Home Secretary’s “positive impression” rating up 15% in eleven days The latest YouGov BrandIndex data published on the UK Polling Report site shows a massive boost for the Home Secretary, John Reid (GREEN) since he came to prominence over his handling of the alleged terror plots. As can be seen from the chart he is well ahead of his potential Labour leadership rival, Gordon Brown (BROWN) and now enjoys poll ratings ahead of the Tory leader, David Cameron (BLUE), whose…