With Zac continuing to trail some Tory voices are questioning the Crosby-inspired campaign

With Zac continuing to trail some Tory voices are questioning the Crosby-inspired campaign

Comments 371 Comments

Donald Brind looks at the Goldsmith campaign tactics Pick your metaphor. Canine or feline. The folklore surrounding Tory election guru Lynton Crosby has both “dead cats” and “dog whistles”. They refer to a strategy based on playing the man not the ball; issuing innuendos and smears rather than fighting on the issues.He was David Cameron’s saviour in the general election but the Crosby approach failed to deliver for the Canadian Tories back in October. Crosby’s fingerprints are all over the…

Read More Read More

Alastair Meeks looking ahead to the GE2020

Alastair Meeks looking ahead to the GE2020

Comments 341 Comments

The Tories are evens to get an overall majority in 2020. Why? asks Alastair Meeks We’ve been here before.  We languish under a Conservative government with a tiny majority, distracted by a frenzied and incomprehensible internal argument being conducted in raised voices over the EU (a subject about which the public largely do not care), staggering from wholly avoidable crisis to wholly avoidable crisis.  The public rightly see the Conservative party as horribly divided.  Disquiet is growing about their basic…

Read More Read More

If next CON leader betting prices are indicator then Boris leadership ambitions not helped by BREXIT campaign

If next CON leader betting prices are indicator then Boris leadership ambitions not helped by BREXIT campaign

Comments 306 Comments

Boris down sharply on the Betfair next CON leader market. Was a 32% chance at start of month now 22% pic.twitter.com/Bq7X1RSOMT — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) April 10, 2016 So far punters not convinced that Cameron is going soon. No money at all matched in past 24 hours on Betfair's Cameron exit date market. — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) April 10, 2016 Asking @BorisJohnson if it's morally wrong to invest in offshore trusts and funds. #c4news @cathynewmanhttps://t.co/Cu3BeYVZzU — Channel 4 News (@Channel4News)…

Read More Read More

We need to re-think next CON leader betting following Cameron’s rough week on his financial affairs

We need to re-think next CON leader betting following Cameron’s rough week on his financial affairs

Comments 516 Comments

SUNDAY TIMES LEAD: Now Cameron could avoid inheritance tax on 200k gift, by @ShippersUnbound #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/joPKCITJNC — Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) April 9, 2016 Dave’s successor will have had a much more humble upbringing One consequence I’d suggest of the past week’s revelations relating to David Cameron is that his successor will come from a very different sort of background. Next time the party will not choose a “posh boy who doesn’t know the price of bread” to use the Nadine…

Read More Read More

The Republican dilemma: Would dumping Trump be worth the hassle?

The Republican dilemma: Would dumping Trump be worth the hassle?

Comments 304 Comments

And if it is, then what? It is something of an irony that after months of saying outrageous things and winning more and more support off the back of it, Trump’s downfall might well be due to a sensible answer. There is, after all, nothing unusual or wrong in the principle that people who break the law should be punished. If it doesn’t feel right to apply the punishment, chances are the law shouldn’t be there in the first place….

Read More Read More

Philip Hammond: worth backing at 28/1

Philip Hammond: worth backing at 28/1

Comments 394 Comments

Another grey man might be just the thing to pick up the pieces If asked for a role model, few aspiring politicians would opt for John Major. Unfashionable, uncharismatic, comprehensively battered at the 1997 election: why would they? Yet the travails of the 1992-7 parliament culminating in that electoral apocalypse overshadow what he achieved in his first 18 months: reuniting a party riven by Europe and re-establishing the Conservatives as economically competent, ideologically pragmatic and on the side of ordinary…

Read More Read More

The May elections less than 4 weeks away – Why so few Tories are raising their voices against Cameron

The May elections less than 4 weeks away – Why so few Tories are raising their voices against Cameron

Comments 627 Comments

From Profs Rallings & Thrasher – council seats up for election on May 5th pic.twitter.com/kMvXF0HZhc — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) April 8, 2016 From Profs Rallings & Thrasher – projection of seat gains & losses for May 5th local elections pic.twitter.com/J1OiRK5Wm9 — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) April 8, 2016 On May 5th more than 2,000 Conservatives will be putting themselves forward as candidates for local councils, the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, the London Assembly as well as for police commissioners in every…

Read More Read More

Why I’m not tempted by the 3/1 bet that Cameron will be out this year

Why I’m not tempted by the 3/1 bet that Cameron will be out this year

Comments 351 Comments

He’s at his best when his back is against the wall As a reaction to Cameron’s dramatic admission on his family offshore investments last night in the interview with Robert Peston several bookies starting offering odds on him failing to survive the year as prime minister. Both Ladbrokes and William Hill are making this a 3/1 chance. Given the nature of the way the information eventually came out bit by bit there is no doubt that the prime minister has…

Read More Read More