How do they respond to 9 days of polling reverses? While all our eyes have been on Washington Labour is only just assimilating the series of huge poll reverses over the past nine days and the question must be asked – is there anything the party can do now to turn things round again. Just to recall: a week yesterday the Times Populus survey came out putting the Tories on 43% – upping the January deficit from 4 to 10…
Is Ken tasked with “bursting the Brown bubble”? I was very taken by a comment from a ConHome contributor, Jono, that the real reason why Clarke has been brought back is not to handle Mandelson – but to challenge Brown. This was picked up by ChritstinaD. Jono writes “..There is one pillar of the whole, painstakingly constructed edifice of the Brown myth that has always been vulnerable and that is the role of Ken Clarke in creating what was sustainable…
What do we make of Polly Toynbee’s explanation? An interesting take on the reasons for the Heathrow 3rd runway decision is in Polly Toynbee’s new Saturday morning slot in the Guardian which has become my Saturday “first read” – with more political analysis and less polemic than her other platforms. (And before you pooh-pooh her the person who game me the tip in June 2007 that Harriet, then 9/1, was going to win the 2007 Deputy race tells me that…
Click on panel to watch Was avoiding a commons vote a mistake? As suggested in the previous thread the person who is making the news over the Heathrow third runway decision is John McDonnell – the local MP who will see hundreds of his constituents lose their homes over the plan and who has been leading the protests. Unfortunately the pictures of him picking up the mace are not too good and the Parliamentary TV service, as is usual, was…
How dangerous for Labour is the Harman plan? Perhaps the biggest political achievement of Tony Blair was his ability in the run up to the 1997 general election to transform his party into a political force that it was safe for the “middle classes” – epitomised by Daily Mail readers if you like – to vote for. And when on May 1st of that year the time came to vote millions who had never thought of supporting the party before…
Who’ll visit if it’s just sycophantic? I’m sure that it’s not just Tory and Lib Dem supporters who’ll take to the latest creation from PB’s cartoonist, Marf. More often than not she hits the nail right on the head and I’m sure, brings a smile to those supporting the politicians she is making fun of. Today’s is an absolute cracker. The great thing about PB, and other leading blog sites, is that we are often quirky, independent and beholden to…
Is there a danger of the headless chicken syndrome? Almost every working day, it seems, there’s a new government announcement, usually by Brown himself, on measures apparently designed to deal with the recession. Today it was the offer of £2,500 to employers for every person they train who has been unemployed for more than six months. Fair enough – the idea sounds promising but have they got the announcement strategy right? Among the things we had last week were the…
UKPollingReport Could he be back below 20% at Christmas? Just when I feared that with no imminent elections that there would be little for political punters to bet on the bookmakers are getting their thinking hats on and now the Dublin-firm, PaddyPower, has introduced a new market on Gord’s Approval ratings. The market applies to “.. Gordon Browns approval rating (% of those who consider Brown to be doing the job of PM well or fairly well) as Prime Minister…