With Scotland looking so difficult Labour’s big hope is the English battleground

With Scotland looking so difficult Labour’s big hope is the English battleground

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Mapping where the main action will be If the two main parties are level-pegging in England then that represents a swing of 5.7% on the last general election so, all the above should be potential LAB gains on current England only polling data. In almost all of the seats in the chart there has been Lord Ashcroft single constituency polling and the latest batch, just before Christmas, of those right at the top of the chart had more CON holds…

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The 22 LAB targets/seats that political scientist, Rob Ford, says could be put at risk by the Green surge

The 22 LAB targets/seats that political scientist, Rob Ford, says could be put at risk by the Green surge

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The 22 key seats where Man Uni's Rob Ford says the Greens could threaten LAB Observer http://t.co/3bZwdemtoy pic.twitter.com/Y9O2FrXZ4v — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) January 24, 2015 Now Miliband might have to secure GREEN-RED tactical voting The leading political scientist, Rob Ford of Manchester University, has an analysis in the Observer this morning about the dangers of the current Green party surge to Labour’s GE15 chances. The 22 seats, some of them currently LAB held some are targets, are shown above and…

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What’s dangerous for Farage about this UKIP defection is that it’ll raise questions again about his leadership style

What’s dangerous for Farage about this UKIP defection is that it’ll raise questions again about his leadership style

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The S Telegraph story on defection of UKIP MEP Amjad Bashir to CON http://t.co/LZEqNbimos pic.twitter.com/zk7B8nq5BC — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) January 24, 2015 Website tells you how many #UKIP politicians have been suspended (32) and how long since most recent (14 mins) http://t.co/07pLgSluj7 — Pete Kennedy (@PeteKennedyGP) January 24, 2015 The MEP is one of quite a few who’ve moved on What makes this particularly striking is the timing so close to the general election, and the fact that Mr. Bashir…

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Well done to ICM and Ipsos-MORI for now providing England only numbers

Well done to ICM and Ipsos-MORI for now providing England only numbers

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Wikipedia has new polling table – ENGLAND ONLY – where CON led by 11.5 at GE10. 3 pollsters now providing this data pic.twitter.com/8U68NH31jx — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) January 24, 2015 As can be seen the picture is very mixed In December I met some pollsters and some of their clients at the BES launch event and suggested that what would be enormously helpful was a breakdown of the England only figures. Whether it was my suggestion or not I don’t…

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The 7-7-2 debate format is just inviting a court challenge

The 7-7-2 debate format is just inviting a court challenge

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The “worm” from the 2nd 2010 debate Maybe judges killing them off is what the broadcasters really want It was so easy last time: three major GB parties and no other vaguely serious contender. With the SNP messing up their legal challenge, the invites to send more-or-less wrote themselves. As is already clear from the saga so far, it’s a very different situation this year. What’s striking to me about the latest proposals is not so much the unwieldy scale…

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The debates: The broadcaster up the ante and threaten to empty chair Cameron

The debates: The broadcaster up the ante and threaten to empty chair Cameron

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The broadcaster have just issued a joint statement on the debates. The sting is in the tail. “The proposed dates for the debates are 2, 16 and 30 April. The order of the debates is to be discussed with the parties. “The party leaders will be formally invited to take part in these debates. In the event that any of the invited party leaders decline to participate, debates will take place with the party leaders who accept the invitation.” The…

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