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Category: Labour

Could it be an all female assassination squad?

Could it be an all female assassination squad?

What is it about Labour’s women and Gordon? A striking feature of the mini-rebellion that started only a week ago last Friday was the preponderance of woman who came out in support of the move by Siobhain McDonagh – the government whip whose resignation got the ball rolling. That’s been continued with the replies today of a survey in the Independent’s of all members of the Cabinet. Apart from John Hutton, a long-standing Brown-doubter, Hazel Blears, Jacqui Smith and Ruth…

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Were you a Brown buyer or seller a year ago today?

Were you a Brown buyer or seller a year ago today?

What can we learn from the betting and polls of September 2007 Exactly a year ago – on September 22nd 2007 – Labour, like today was in conference in Manchester and all the talk was about the “coming election”. There were even suggestions that Brown might announce something in his speech – like this year taking place on the Tuesday. There was lots of excitement on the betting markets and I clipped the above from the Spreadfair spread betting exchange…

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Four more resignations after the conference?

Four more resignations after the conference?

News of the World reports more bad news to come for Brown As the Labour Conference gets underway and the party tries to present a united front, there is more bad news for the PM today, with the News of the World reporting that four more members of the government are preparing to resign. The paper says that two of the four are mid-ranking ministers and two are ministerial assistants, although their identities have not been hinted at – they…

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Has Luntz Part 2 saved the day for Gord?

Has Luntz Part 2 saved the day for Gord?

Does his latest session merely add to the confusion? As Mike has noted before, when Frank Luntz conducted focus groups on the Labour leadership back in September 2006, there was a complete lack of appetite for Gordon Brown. The other much-noted result was the extent to which these findings dashed the hopes of Alan Johnson. The results were not just definitive – they were damning. So what are we to make of last night Luntz performance for Newsnight, when he…

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Will Gord really get a financial crisis poll boost?

Will Gord really get a financial crisis poll boost?

Or has the PM totally lost it with the electorate? The line that the Brown Bunker is arguing like mad is that their man is the only person who can steer the country through the stormy waters that are being faced as the world has to deal with the credit crunch. You can see why they are saying this – but what is the polling evidence? Just look at the table above from UK polling report showing every single published…

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What did you do in the great Labour rebellion Daddy?

What did you do in the great Labour rebellion Daddy?

“Were you one of the first or did you wait till the outcome was clear?” Spare a thought a thought this morning for Labour MPs as they agonise over what to do. Do they join the still handful of their colleagues who have taken massive risks with their careers to become part of the initial batch or do they wait and see? It’s a very hard call because like all rebellions there will come a moment when the outcome is…

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What will be the political impact of the Lehman collapse?

What will be the political impact of the Lehman collapse?

Will it enable Obama to refocus more strongly on the economy? The economic and financial impacts of the failure of Lehman Brothers have been rippling outwards today as stock markets around the world are sharply down (with the FTSE dropping almost 4% and the Dow currently down about 2.5%). But what will be the political consequences of the events on Wall Street? With the polls and the markets narrowing in the White House race, is this one “event” that actually…

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Is this, finally, the beginning of the end?

Is this, finally, the beginning of the end?

Three ministers set to quit The Evening Standard is reporting that that a Minister of State, a junior minister and several Parliamentary Private Secretaries are set to resign in a bid to oust the Prime Minister. Also, the Daily Telegraph is reporting that Thursday’s NEC will be the focus for an attempted coup by MPs, and that the PM has been “put on warning by senior party figures that he has only a matter of weeks to save his troubled…

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