Corbyn’s activist army as well as the new leader will be on trial in Oldham on December 3rd

Corbyn’s activist army as well as the new leader will be on trial in Oldham on December 3rd

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Activism is about knocking on doors on dark cold November evenings The results of today’s election of committee chairs by LAB MPs highlights the massive gulf between the parliamentary party and the new leader. As George Eaton in the Staggers reports the outcome was a triumph for the right. An indication of how badly it went for Team Corbyn was that “Of the 17 commitee chairs, 11 supported Liz Kendall’s leadership campaign, including Tristram Hunt (Communities and Local Government), Ivan…

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Exactly ten years ago – the David Cameron David Davis CON leadership live TV debate

Exactly ten years ago – the David Cameron David Davis CON leadership live TV debate

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Davis was deemed the debate “winner” but Cameron went on to an easy victory in the membership ballot Next month David Cameron will be celebrating ten years as Conservative leader and at this stage in November 2005 he faced what was his last big hurdle before securing the prize – the BBC Question Time leadership debate. It’s a fascinating watch. My PB report on the post debate YouGov poll noted: Tory members who had watched the programme said Davis won…

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Antifrank on the GE2020 prospects for Tim Farron’s Lib Dems

Antifrank on the GE2020 prospects for Tim Farron’s Lib Dems

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The Lib Dems had a disastrous election in 2015, tallying just eight seats.  Where do they go from here?  Is the only way up? Well, actually, no.  There is a serious possibility that things could get worse for them in 2020.  Of their eight seats, only one of them looks truly safe on current boundaries: that of their leader, Tim Farron.  Three of their four most marginal seats look as though they may well lose their Lib Dem incumbents: Southport,…

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London might be a Labour city but it has only won the mayoralty once

London might be a Labour city but it has only won the mayoralty once

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Contenders need to be able to reach out beyond their party bases One of the biggest UK political battles and what will certainly be a big political betting event will be next year’s race for the London will between Zac Goldsmith for the Blues and Sadiq Khan for the Reds. This will be the fifth time there’s been such an elections and so far CON has won two, LAB one and independent one. The latter, of course, was Ken in…

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Rubio the big betting gainer and Bush the big loser after a week that saw the 3rd Republican nominee WH2016 debate

Rubio the big betting gainer and Bush the big loser after a week that saw the 3rd Republican nominee WH2016 debate

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Because there is a general clampdown down in the US on online betting many US observers are having to look at what is happening on the UK markets in order to get a sense of the betting sentiment on the White House Race. A new American site has just been established, which is monitoring this daily and producing regular reports on how things are being seen. It is covering three elements, the Democratic nomination, the Republican nomination and of course…

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John Bickley looks set to be UKIP’s choice in Oldham & Royton

John Bickley looks set to be UKIP’s choice in Oldham & Royton

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UKIP set to choose John Bickley for Oldham & R by election. He came within whisker in Oct 2014 Heywood by-election pic.twitter.com/h99YY4SzvR — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) November 3, 2015 Can he repeat his Heywood & Middleton magic? One of the huge shocks, and what in retrospect turned out to be a good pointer to GE2015, was the way that UKIP ran LAB so close in the October 2014 by-election Heywood & Middleton which is very close to Oldham. This, like…

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