Sturgeon’s game-plan? Replace LAB with CON by replacing CON with LAB

Sturgeon’s game-plan? Replace LAB with CON by replacing CON with LAB

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Can the SNP push Labour into third in 2016? It’s been said that the creation of New Labour was indirectly Margaret Thatcher’s greatest achievement; that her government remodelled the whole political landscape so much that many of her policies were continued and developed not just by her own Conservative successor as PM but by the Labour one following him too. As with all these things, there’s an overly-deterministic element to such reasoning (had John Smith lived, his leadership would have…

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Labour should be second favourite in Thanet South not a 10-1 outsider

Labour should be second favourite in Thanet South not a 10-1 outsider

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If Farage loses it is likely to be to this man not the Tories I understand from those close to UKIP that the well-funded and well-organised Farage campaign is becoming a tad concerned about the personable Will Scobie, the former Mayor of Margate and local councillor who is standing for Labour. They think that their man is still ahead and would win if the election was today but they now think that the main threat is now coming from their…

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Less than seven weeks to go and the Labour Scottish nightmare continues

Less than seven weeks to go and the Labour Scottish nightmare continues

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No sign of any progress for LAB in Scotland. Wiki list of polls pic.twitter.com/KgYHxAFBZr — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) March 20, 2015 Because of the timing of counts the SNP could be ahead nationally at 2am on election night Overnight we had not one but two new Survation polls from Scotland. One was for Unison and the other was the regular survey for the Daily Record. The figures are in the Wiki table above and as can be seen, Labour remains…

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Harry Hayfield’s local election preview

Harry Hayfield’s local election preview

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Rhyl South West on Denbighshire (Lab defence) Result of council at last election (2012): Labour 18, Independents 12, Conservatives 9, Plaid Cymru 7, Liberal Democrat 1 (No Overall Control, Labour short by 6) Result of ward at last election (2012): E denotes elected Labour: Pat Jones 797 E, Margaret McCarroll 647 E (70%) Independents: David Thomas 184, Glyn Williams 141 (16%) Conservatives: Harry Bennett 116, Billy Dawson 96 (10%) Liberal Democrats: David Dear 71 (2%) Candidates duly nominated: David Dear…

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CON maintain their 14 seat lead on the main Commons seats spread market

CON maintain their 14 seat lead on the main Commons seats spread market

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CON still 14 seats ahead on the @SportingIndex http://t.co/ebrNykWXCd Commons seats spread market pic.twitter.com/XdqhEyLBQA — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) March 19, 2015 Meanwhile SPIN has now introduced a range of seat markets which take into account the second placed party. Basically you have a spread from 0 to 25 with the top figure for the winner and 10 for the second place. This is one of the few places where you can be bet on second places. I’ll be doing a…

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The GE2015 prospects for Clegg, Salmond, and Farage are all dependent on tactical voting either for or against

The GE2015 prospects for Clegg, Salmond, and Farage are all dependent on tactical voting either for or against

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So what combination will fail to be elected on May 7th? One of those attending the PB party on Tuesday, a long standing lurker who has never posted, told me that one of his favourite bets at the moment was the then 50/1 he’d got that Farage, Salmond and Clegg would all fail to be elected at the election. This was pleasing to me personally because the market on which combination of the three would make it was one I’d…

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Some pics from last night’s gathering

Some pics from last night’s gathering

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Fat Steve & MikeK Sunil & Stodge Richard Nabavi & Antifrank Maybe because it was mid-week in a new venue but last night’s PB London Gathering didn’t attract the numbers that we have got used to. Still about 20 made the trip to a congenial pub close to Liverpool Street station for what turned out to be a really good evening. Clearly the the budget and the general election were very much in mind and, as you’d expect, everyone had…

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So was it, as was being predicted, the game-changer?

So was it, as was being predicted, the game-changer?

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Osbo kicks off pic.twitter.com/RZCeCEFwNp — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) March 18, 2015 Wait a few days before making a judgement The one thing we’ve learned from previous budgets, both LAB & CON, is that early judgements are not usually the right ones. Remember the initial polling on the March 2012 omni-shambles was fairly positive. What the budget does for all parties is to shape the way the economic debate will progress in this final period. Whatever I guess that this was…

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