It’s not inconceivable that in a year’s time there’ll be a new CON leader and Prime Minister

It’s not inconceivable that in a year’s time there’ll be a new CON leader and Prime Minister

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ConservativeHome A referendum BREXIT vote would surely be the end of Cameron There’s is a widespread view that if the EU referendum goes against Cameron then his position will no longer be tenable. If that happens then we could only be months away from the first Conservative leadership contest since 2005 in which the party would not just be choosing a new leader but the next prime minister. With the plan apparently for the referendum this year and the tightness…

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How George Osborne is hoping to raid pension pots without you noticing

How George Osborne is hoping to raid pension pots without you noticing

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Alastair Meeks, former chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers, looks at George Osborne’s plans for pensions. When I qualified as a pension lawyer, my first boss used to say: “Alastair, when people hear the word ‘pension’, they think ‘old’, they think ‘grey’, they think ‘boring’.  But if every time you hear the word ‘pension’ you replace it with the word ‘money’, suddenly it seems so much more exciting.”  Today I’m going to talk to you about money. We have now…

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Why Sadiq Khan shouldn’t resign as an MP were he to become London Mayor

Why Sadiq Khan shouldn’t resign as an MP were he to become London Mayor

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In May, Khan might be the only electoral success for Labour and like Boris that could propel him towards the leadership of his party. I’ll be frank, I think Jeremy Corbyn is a disaster for Labour, with his and his team’s approach to politics there will be no electoral low that Labour won’t plunge under his leadership as evidenced by his poor personal polling. With the reshuffle this week I get the feeling the Parliamentary Labour Party have reached a…

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Why Team Corbyn might be on a loser attacking the trustworthiness of BBC journalists

Why Team Corbyn might be on a loser attacking the trustworthiness of BBC journalists

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The real problem, surely, is Labour’s poor media operation The whole reshuffle affair has dominated the headlines for far too long and that’s not been good for the image of Corbyn’s Labour. As Damian McBride was saying in the PB/Polling Matters podcast yesterday the art of a reshuffle is to have it largely completed before word starts seeping to the media. Instead we have had speculation going on for weeks so what should have been a 48 hour maximum story…

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Germany’s inherited war-shame is in danger of eating itself

Germany’s inherited war-shame is in danger of eating itself

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But the consequences of Merkel’s madness will be felt Europe-wide Germany paid a heavy price for the world wars. Only during Angela Merkel’s chancellorship were the loans for WWI reparations finally paid off. That cost, however, pales into insignificance compared with the legacy of the second War. The human and material losses were of course disastrous but perhaps the most lasting legacy was psychological: the national shame of the past and the consequent and reflexive determination – craving, even –…

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Why the decline of the BNP is good news for Farage’s UKIP

Why the decline of the BNP is good news for Farage’s UKIP

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The news this afternoon that the BNP is no longer officially a political party has been dismissed by party officials as an oversight. The move has, apparently, been caused by the failure of the party to send in the fee of £25 by the the due date with the result that it has been removed from the official list. This means that BNP candidates won’t use the party’s name, description or emblems on ballot papers. But it’s expected that things…

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Not in my name: Alastair Meeks looks at Corbyn’s leadership style

Not in my name: Alastair Meeks looks at Corbyn’s leadership style

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No compromise on issue regarded by him as matters of principle In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the burning topic of the day – literally, on occasion –  was religion.  In England, the cutting edge of religious thought was found among what we now call the Puritans.  This label was originally in fact a catch-all term of abuse for a variety of different hardline Protestant groups and not one that those so labelled would have welcomed.  One of the seminal…

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EXCLUSIVE: PB/Polling Matters Podcast with Damian McBride

EXCLUSIVE: PB/Polling Matters Podcast with Damian McBride

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Gordon Brown ex-senior advisor on what’s happening within Labour On the first PB/Polling Matters podcast of 2016 Keiran and Rob are joined by former special adviser to Gordon Brown, Damian McBride. Damian talks through his reactions to this week’s reshuffle, how political coups work and his advice for Jeremy Corbyn’s team. Keiran talks us through some of the polling and asks how much this reshuffle really matters and the team take questions from listeners about this week’s events, Corbyn’s future…

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