A guest slot by ex-Labour MP, Nick Palmer First a quick word on where I’m coming from. I’ve been a Labour partisan for 40 years, but not one of the ultra-tribal kind who hates everyone else. In particular, if Labour didn’t exist, I’ve always assumed I’d vote LibDem. I’d also concede that they’ve sometimes been right in the past when we were wrong (Iraq is the obvious case) and that they’re traditionally better and more interested in some things that…
Was it always likely that the pledge would have to be broken? So we are here – Lib Dem betrayal time and an embarrassment for the coalition. But why on earth did Clegg’s party agree to it in the first place because there was always a pretty good chance that it was a promise that couldn’t be kept? Consider two facts. The inquiry into university funding by ex-BP boss John Browne was set up by the last Labour government with…
“Stick with first past the post or stick with AV?†(YouGov) All voters CON% LAB % LD% Switch to AV 32 24 32 70 Stick with first past the post 43 62 49 14 Wouldn’t vote/don’t know 25 14 19 16 “Blame for the spending cuts?†(YouGov) All voters CON% LAB % LD% CON-LD coalition 20 1 52 5 Last Labour government 46 91 7 69 Both 22 5 25 15 Neither 7 2 13 6 Lots of polling has…
Cambridge University Press Could your politics be determined by your genetic make-up? Like most PB regulars, I guess, I’ve always assumed that a person’s political ideology is determined by family environment and friends. New research suggests something different. For liberals, at least, may owe their political outlook partly to their genetic make-up, according to researchers from the University of California, San Diego, and Harvard University. Ideology is affected not just by social factors, but also by a dopamine receptor gene…
Suddenly the man who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury for 18 days, David Laws is back in the news again. Earlier in the week he gave evidence before a commons committee on the formation of the coalition and at the end of the month a book with his account of the negotiations will be published. But what are the chances of him becoming a minister again? Political Smarkets have a market up with options of “during 2010”; the first…
Which would his party prefer – help for students or poor children? A key reason, I believe, why there have been just two changes of government during the past 30 years is that whoever is in power has so much control over the news agenda. The ability, day in and day out, to make announcements that grab the headlines is awesome. Not only does it keep your people up-front apparently doing popular things but sophisticated scheduling of stories can often…
Have the LDs only themselves to blame for the fees predicament? If truth be told when 54 of the current 57 Lib Dem MPs signed the apparently “solemn pledge” to vote against an increase in student fees then very few could have foreseen what a problem it would be six months down the line. As a piece of campaigning in university seats the pledge signing by party candidates looked smart creating a neat photo op. But how it all looks…
Final week campaign poster – May 2010 How will the blue team campaign next time? We all remember the closing stages of the May general election. The Lib Dems had surged following the debates and the Tories launched a furious campaign warning of what would happen if there was a hung parliament. In broad terms it worked – certainly in impeding the move to the yellows. But the blues were still 18 seats short of an overall majority and Cameron…