Could a pre-election public grilling hurt Labour? The main lead in the Guardian this morning is the news that both Blair and Brown are likely to face public questioning about their Iraq war role by the Chilcot inquiry. Last week Brown announced that this would be in secret but after a wave a protests that has been changed. As the paper puts it “..the move to open up his hearings, which came on the eve of a Commons debate tomorrow…
New data points to 158 Tory gains While many Labour MPs might be celebrating that “their man” won yesterday’s election for the speaker there’s a sharp reminder of the challenge the party faces at the election in a new Harris poll for today’s Metro. The pollster which used to be one of the main firms in the UK has hardly been seen for years. The firm seems to operate online and is a member of the British Polling Council which…
Sky News April 12 2009 Surely there’s no truth in the reports that he’s back? James Forsyth at the Spectator Coffee House blog is running a report that there are unconfirmed reports that the disgraced Number 10 spin doctor and former right hand man to the PM, Sean Damien McBride, is “actively working for Labour again”. I simply don’t believe it. For given everything associated with McBride’s exit in April and all the promises last Monday that Brown had turned…
Could my 200/1 bet come good? He’s everywhere and seems to be involved in everything and there’s little doubt that the big winner of the Brown leadership wobble was Peter Mandelson. (To save pressure on the server I won’t itemise his full titles!) It was his calm intervention, of course, in the hours after James Purnell resigned that calmed Labour down and controlled the nature of the crisis. Quite what he said (and promised?) to the key players late on…
Was last week about him buying a “dignified exit”? Of all the Labour-leaning bloggers the one I have the most respect for is Paul Linford who consistently has insights about the party which set him apart. His weekend reflections on the future for Gordon and Labour are a case in point and are a must read for those trying to work out what the next eleven months will bring. “…What Mr Brown has done over the past week is not…
CON 40 (+3) LAB 24(+2) LD 18 (-1) Half those polled say Brown is “damaging Britain” In its first full Westminster voting intention survey since the Euro elections the Sunday Times YouGov poll shows that the other parties are continuing to figure highly getting `18% of the choices of those in the sample. YouGov show that both the Tories and Labour are seeing increases in their vote shares – though Brown’s party is still in the low 20s. UKIP is…
Populus CON 36 (-5) LAB 24(+3) LD 19 (+4) Blow for Cameron in new Populus poll The latest Populus poll in the Times looks like a serious blow for the Tories following nine terrible days for Labour. The voting intention figures above are bad enough but one of the other findings could be very worrying. As the paper puts it “..faced by a straight choice, 44 per cent would still prefer a Labour government and 42 per cent a Conservative…
Does Labour want Maggie’s records out before the election? One little item that stood out for me in Brown’s constitutional statement is the plan to reduce the so-called “30 year rule” to twenty years. This is the arrangement by which highly sensitive cabinet and other papers are made available for researchers to look at – but only thirty years after the events. So until now the latest documentation that we’ve seen has been of the Callaghan’s government in the period…