UKIP becomes a one-man band once again – another extraordinary day in the life of Farage’s party

UKIP becomes a one-man band once again – another extraordinary day in the life of Farage’s party

Comments 0 Comment

Labour fired their leader after the election. Lib Dems fired their leader after the election. And UKIP are firing everyone but their leader. — Oliver Cooper (@OliverCooper) May 19, 2015 Former key allies Patrick O'Flynn and Suzanne Evans both lose their jobs in a 12 hour period as Nigel Farage exerts his authority at @UKIP. — Christopher Hope? (@christopherhope) May 19, 2015 Public repentance by spokesmen, advisers culled, personality cults, key ideologues purged, Ukip now more mysterious than N Korea….

Read More Read More

A guest slot by Lucian on the Northern Ireland dimension – the re-emergence of the UUP

A guest slot by Lucian on the Northern Ireland dimension – the re-emergence of the UUP

Comments 0 Comment

BBC News Northern Ireland summary Now the focus is on next year’s Assembly elections There is little doubt that the UUP will regard the general election as a success. They had no seats, they now have two. Fermanagh and South Tyrone was won by Tom Elliott after a deal was struck with the DUP and other unionist parties. South Antrim was taken from the DUP’s William McCrea by Danny Kinahan. So the party has removed the horror of not having…

Read More Read More

Pollsters should follow Ipsos MORI’s 2008 example and not rush to resume general election surveys

Pollsters should follow Ipsos MORI’s 2008 example and not rush to resume general election surveys

Comments 0 Comment

It had had a 4% Ken lead for mayor – Boris finished up 6% ahead Back in 2008 at the first Boris-Ken battle the opinion polls became an issue during the campaign. YouGov was showing Boris leads close to what happened (a 6.2% Johnson lead) while Ipsos, in its final poll had Ken 3% ahead. The polling led to a lot of attacks on YouGov from Ken and the Labour camp but in the end the online firm was vindicated….

Read More Read More

Marf on the LAB leadership as Liz Kendall gets closer in the betting

Marf on the LAB leadership as Liz Kendall gets closer in the betting

Comments 0 Comment

Liz Kendall moves to joint 2nd favourite in betting for next LAB leader pic.twitter.com/Jyvj2c5LrT — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) May 18, 2015 According to Huffington post the move by UNITE to get behind Andy Burnham might be back-backfiring. “Backers of Liz Kendall are hoping that an influx of new party members and supporters will wrest control of the Labour leadership race back from Len McCluskey. The Unite general secretary is facing a backlash from MPs and local constituency parties after threatening…

Read More Read More

As the post GE15 polling debate continues SPIN’s Aidan Nutbrown asks “Are Elections Random?”

As the post GE15 polling debate continues SPIN’s Aidan Nutbrown asks “Are Elections Random?”

Comments 0 Comment

The outcome showed why punters should expect the unexpected Albert Einstein famously said: “God doesn’t play dice”. He was wrong. Everything has a random element to it. I aim to board the 8.08 train each morning but sometimes for unforeseen reasons I miss it. And sometimes for unforeseen reasons it doesn’t appear. This uncertainty is precisely why betting is fun, and why bookies exist. It is a given that sports events have large degrees of uncertainty to them. A horse…

Read More Read More

Labour should not be too pessimistic about their chances of taking power in 2020

Labour should not be too pessimistic about their chances of taking power in 2020

Comments 0 Comment

The Conservative Party will be fighting the next general election without their strongest asset, David Cameron. There’s some pessimism from Labour supporters about their chances at the next election. For example, Jon Cruddas in today’s Observer says “this could be the greatest crisis the Labour party has ever faced” whilst some are suggesting, that Sir Keir Starmer, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, and someone who has been an MP for a little over week, is the man to save Labour,…

Read More Read More

The Labour leadership election gets exciting as the Unions try and install Andy Burnham as leader

The Labour leadership election gets exciting as the Unions try and install Andy Burnham as leader

Comments 0 Comment

Front page story of the @thesundaytimes via @hendopolis Story here http://t.co/YcqW88z1Mz pic.twitter.com/oiMiWoSH3Q — TSE (@TSEofPB) May 16, 2015 Looking at this story (££), it is probably bad news for Liz Kendall who is perceived to be the most Blairite of the contenders. The other interesting snippet from the Sunday Times piece, is that Burnham currently has 50 MPs backing him and is approaching 100 MPs as backers, which would mean not all the declared candidates will make it to the ballot…

Read More Read More