Did the blues make the wrong call last May? On the previous thread Laptop posed the question of whether, in the light of what’s happened over the past ten months, the Tories would have been better going for a “supply & confidence” arrangement with the Lib Dems rather than full coalition? Certainly looking at the way the polls and and Barnsley have gone things look bleak for the yellows as they face the May 5th English locals and the devolved…
Could the future of the coalition be on the line? My strong sense from all that has come out in the past 24 hours from the Lib Dem conference in Sheffield is that the partnership between the blues and the yellows is about to face its biggest test over the Andrew Lansley NHS changes. From the amendments that the Lib Dem leadership had to accept yesterday the party’s contingent of MPs is going to find it almost impossible to go…
Jonathan’s Sunday Slot…a bit late! It has been a truly dire week for the Liberal Democrats. It became clear that the AV referendum could fail, now that No2AV is making progress in the polls. The party fell from second to sixth in the Barnsley by-election; an incredibly poor result, perhaps without precedent. More worryingly, the election also saw UKIP emerge as a plausible third party choice and apply pressure on the coalition from the right. These are dangerous times for…
What are the chances of a 2011 general election? It’s been a pretty depressing couple of weeks for the junior coalition party. First there was Clegg’s unfortunate “am I in charge” quip, then he had to face a pretty robust DPMQs, the go-ahead to Rupert Murdoch and now the Barnsley Central result. Even AV, if the latest YouGov poll suggesting that support for NO is growing is correct, might not get through as easily as it looked a few weeks…
Guardian Should Clegg remain invisible for the entire campaign? The Guardian is reporting this morning that Ed Miliband has told the YES campaign that he will not share a platform with Nick Clegg because he believes that the Lib Dem leader is so toxic to Labour supporters that it could affect the outcome. Apparently the Labour leader is happy to share platforms with other prominent Lib Dems – Ashdown/William/Kennedy etc – but not the leader. Given the way that Labour…
David Cameron David Cameron “doing well/badly†(YouGov) All (last week) CON voters LAB voters LD voters Well 45(+2) 95 10 71 Badly 48(-1) 4 88 25 Ed Miliband Ed Miliband “doing well/badly†(YouGov) All (last week) CON voters LAB voters LD voters Well 37 (+4) 16 72 28 Badly 43 (-1) 65 16 57 Nick Clegg Nick Clegg “doing well/badly†(YouGov) All (last week) CON voters LAB voters LD voters Well 34(+6) 68 8 79 Badly 57(-5) 26 88 20…
Ipsos-MORI What do we think of the MORI leader/party “like/dislike” numbers? One of Ipsos-MORI’s “hardy annuals” is this series of questions contrasting the like/dislike of the three main party leaders with voters views of their parties. This is the first time since the general election and formation of the coalition government that these questions have been put and the summary of responses is featured above. In terms of likeability Cameron comes out top with Clegg in second place and Miliband…
David Cameron David Cameron “doing well/badly†(YouGov) All (last week) CON voters LAB voters LD voters Well 45(-1) 96 9 76 Badly 48(+2) 3 89 23 Ed Miliband Ed Miliband “doing well/badly†(YouGov) All (last week) CON voters LAB voters LD voters Well 33 (+5) 17 66 32 Badly 43 (-6) 66 20 55 Nick Clegg Nick Clegg “doing well/badly†(YouGov) All (last week) CON voters LAB voters LD voters Well 30(nc) 63 4 74 Badly 60 (nc) 27 92…