Has the bar been set even higher for Gord? At the last Euro elections on June 10th 2004 the national polls shares (excluding NI) had Labour in second place on just 22.6% a full four points behind the Tories. UKIP beat the Lib Dems into the third place slot. These were the 2004 shares: CON 26.7: LAB 22.6: UKIP 16.1: LIBD 14.9: GRN 6.3 In spite of the performance, it should be said, Tony Blair led Labour to its third…
What will be the size of the Barack boost? One of the consequences of the recession is that newspapers are looking closely at their polling budgets. The result is that we’ve seen far fewer non-scheduled surveys. Fortunately the regular monthly polls are so far unaffected and the next one due is Populus in the Times which hopefully will be out tomorrow night. In February the Tories were on 42 percent 14 ahead of Labour with the LDs on 18 percent….
PoliticsHome Would it have been different if other words had been used? There’s a poll finding out overnight which seems to suggest that voters have had enough with the media and Tory demands for Brown to say “sorry” for his past mistakes on the economy. Labour is taking great comfort in the survey and, indeed, Nick Palmer MP was posting here at 2am to alert us. But is the poll all it seems and is the simplified way the PH…
Tory Party website And is this Tory “effort” silly or smart? You got to feel a bit sorry for Gordon. Wherever he goes these days and faces questioning from serious journos he’s pressed to say “sorry”. It happened in the Oval Office and Tuesday and last night Sky News did an analysis of the words and phrases used in yesterday’s Congress address building up to the punch-line that the number of times he had said sorry was zero. Now the…
Brunel University Can businessmen ever become successful politicians? There’s a lot of traction at the moment behind Alan Sugar, the star of the Apprentice and the man who made his fortune with Amstrad, to become Labour’s 2012 candidate for the London Mayoralty. He’s been a strong party supporter for most of his life and has been used a lot by Labour in its promotions. He’s also a solidly based Londoner with East End origins and is listed as the 92nd…
BBC News Online Will the bookie win back its party sponsorship and more? Judging by level of activity going through PB’s odds comparison micro-site the Ladbrokes market on the words that Gordon Brown will use in today’s Congress speech has been one of the most popular non-election political betting events that we’ve seen. It will be recalled that punters have been offered odds on a range of words and phrases that the PM might use in the speech and if…
PO privatisation: the view from the Labour’s grass-roots Peter Mandelson’s proposals to sell off a third of Royal Mail spell electoral disaster for the Labour Party in the June elections and beyond. Last year’s local and mayoral elections were by and large catastrophic for Labour. The economic and political rollercoaster ride since then makes the 10p tax furore feel and age ago, but I remember it clear to this day. One of my roles then was to ring party members…
Mail on Sunday Would she be better for Brown inside or outside the tent? There’s a piece in the Mail on Sunday today raising the possibility that the Prime Minister may be considering sacking Harriet Harman. According to the paper, “…his anger boiled over at a private meeting in No10, shouting: ‘Who the hell does that woman think she is?’ Sources say Mr Brown swore more than once during heated exchanges with aides on how to silence Labour’s Deputy Leader….