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Category: Labour

Would a Nobel Prize boost Labour’s prospects?

Would a Nobel Prize boost Labour’s prospects?

How would Dave deal with the Economics Nobel Laureate? There’s a story running in Italy today and quoted by the Evening Standard, that the Vatican’s favourite economist, Ettori Gotti Tedeschi. is calling for this year’s Nobel Prize for Economics to be given to Gordon Brown. According to Paul Waugh in the Standard: “Tedeschi -a fervent Catholic with five children, professor of economics at the Catholic University of Milan and president in Italy of Banco Santander – has told La Repubblica…

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Is the Tory vote becoming less committed?

Is the Tory vote becoming less committed?

Ipsos-MORI Is it because Cameron has been out of the news? When the MORI poll came out this morning my initial reaction was that what had driven the decline in the Tory share and increase in the Labour one was a big increase in the number of the latter’s supporters saying they were “100% certain to vote”. We have now just got the detailed data and I was wrong. The level of overall Tory support in the poll was not…

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Will this be enough to deflect Dave’s apology demands?

Will this be enough to deflect Dave’s apology demands?

Mail Online Or will it just keep the story going? The Brown apology story moves on a step this morning with comments by the PM in a Guardian interview in which he admits that that he could have taken tougher action to curb the financial markets during he period as Chancellor. I think the Mail story above has got the sense right – yes there are words of apology there but it’s arguable whether he’s gone far enough. Whatever it’s…

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Should this kill off the Labour “swingback” fantasy?

Should this kill off the Labour “swingback” fantasy?

ICM Is the idea that “governments always recover” a myth? We are hearing it all the time at the moment from journalists, politicos and pundits who should at least have the basic ability to check some simple facts before publishing wild statements – the idea that governments “always” recover in the polls as we get close to the general election. One of the problems, as discussed on the previous thread, is that many recall the unreformed polls of the 1990s…

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Is it time to cross Hattie off the list?

Is it time to cross Hattie off the list?

Is there anything to justify her favourite status? Just looking down the list of potential runners in the next Labour leader race betting and one names stands out, the current leader of the house and the person who won the deputy contest in June 2007, Harriet Harman. The best you can get on her is 10/3 – a price that owes a lot to her success in that election two years ago. But are we giving too much emphasis to…

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Why is RBS politically vetting potential customers?

Why is RBS politically vetting potential customers?

RBS Will this be another big headache for Labour? One of the big services that the taxpayer-owned bank provides is RBS Streamline – a mechanism by which retailers and other others can offer credit/debit card facilities. As we move more and more away from cash this side of the bank’s business has grown and grown and RBS is now a leader in its field. So how come that the firm is now, apparently, subjecting those merchants who want to use…

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Could Washington ruin Gord’s G20 hopes?

Could Washington ruin Gord’s G20 hopes?

Guardian.co.uk Why won’t they even answer the phone? A story running tonight suggests that Brown’s plan to use next month’s G20 meeting in London as key part of his personal recovery plan might not work out so smoothly after all. As the Guardian reports the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell, told a conference in Gateshead that No 10 was having trouble even getting in touch with key personnel at the US treasury department. “There is nobody there – you cannot…

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Is “Do Nothing” doing nothing for Labour?

Is “Do Nothing” doing nothing for Labour?

PB poll suggests that Brown needs new rhetoric After the assertion here on Friday that a PoliticsHome poll on “Gord saying sorry” was leading the site’s editor, Freddie Sayers, offered PB the chance of its own exclusive polling question. In keeping with the theme the chosen subject area was the repeated use of the term “do nothing” by Labour to describe the Tory stance on the banking crisis and the general economic situation. We only had a very short time…

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