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Category: Labour

Was Labour’s poster – a “gaffe” or a “£5m publicity coup”?

Was Labour’s poster – a “gaffe” or a “£5m publicity coup”?

Who’ll come out best in the Milburn-Crosby show? We’ll have to wait until the early hours of May 6th when the results from seats with large Jewish populations like Finchley and Golders Green are declared before we can completely put the lid on the Labour poster affair. If the party’s performance is disproportionately worse in these seats then no doubt some erudite commentator will be recalling the little row that’s been going on since Friday and which has now led…

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Will Blair get his Bagdhad bounce?

Will Blair get his Bagdhad bounce?

But why aren’t the markets moving in his direction? After the success of yesterday’s elections in Iraq can Tony Blair now draw a line under the war and its aftermath and start to relish in what some have described as his “Bagdhad Bounce”? For if there had been any doubt at all about whether he will be returned with another huge majority it has been over his decision to take the country into the war without UN sanction and against…

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Will the pig poster cost Jewish votes?

Will the pig poster cost Jewish votes?

Why did nobody realise that this was offensive? Labour’s poster featuring Michael Howard and Oliver Letwin as the faces of flying pigs was surely not designed to make political capital out of the Jewish backgrounds of the Opposition Leader and Shadow Chancellor. But how come that Alan Milburn or somebody else in Labour’s campaign team did not know that it is distasteful for a Jewish person to be associated with a pig? And given the fuss why have Labour PR…

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Is Labour back to its 2001 form?

Is Labour back to its 2001 form?

Can the campaign magic of last time repeat itself? Whatever your allegiance you have to concede that the Labour campaign in 2001 was totally brilliant. Although it’s margin over the Tories was nearly a quarter down on 1997, this did not translate into many seats changing hands because Tony Blair’s party piled on the votes in the only seats that mattered – the marginals it was defending. This is shown by the way it performed in each category of seat…

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Is Gordon Brown worth 25/1 to be the post-election PM?

Is Gordon Brown worth 25/1 to be the post-election PM?

A good value bet on the Chancellor? Gordon Brown’s high-profile African tour signing deals to ease the foreign debt burden of poor countries should go down well with many of the potential LD-leaning Labour supporters on whom the General Election result probably depends. It sounds like a bold initiaitive but as critics have pointed out it is one that it is not costing the UK tax-payer very much. The latest in Tanzania will provide an average of £4m a year…

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The partnership that did real damage to Labour

The partnership that did real damage to Labour

Forget the Blair-Brown squabble: Blair-Bush is the one that matters With Michael Howard trying to squeeze every bit of political capital over Gordon Brown’s views of the PM’s approach to the truth punters should not forget the other of Tony Blair’s partnerships that has done far far more damage than the Tories ever can to Labour. His decision to join George Bush in the Iraqi adventure has hurt the party dear and no amount of massaging the figures can gloss…

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Will Brown’s Chancellorship survive 2005?

Will Brown’s Chancellorship survive 2005?

Hills offer 7/4 on Gordon going in 2005 With both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown trying to calm the atmosphere following the weekend’s revelations about what Brown said about trusting his boss William Hill have opened a market on the Chancellor staying in his post for the whole of 2005. The price is 7/4 that Gordon Brown will cease to be Chancellor by January 1, 2006 – and 2/5 that he is still in the post on that date. Given…

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What’s the electoral price for Brown’s dissent?

What’s the electoral price for Brown’s dissent?

Labour sell price down three A sign of the complete confidence that Gordon Brown has in a Labour victory at the election is the report this morning that he is considering going “it alone in the run-up to the general election after being “excluded” from campaign preparations by Downing Street. The report in the Independent observes: In a sign of serious tensions between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, Mr Brown signalled that he would be forming his own ideas…

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