David Herdson says don’t “misunderestimate” Ed Miliband
Has he been taking advice from George W Bush? The forty-third president of the United States said some silly things in his time, to the extent that ‘Bushism’ has become defined not as his political philosophy but as the kind of verbal misspeak that occurs when the brain and mouth take different directions during the same sentence, or alternatively, when a high-powered politician goes in for ill-advised flippancy. On which note, his speech to the 2001 Gridiron Club dinner contained the…
Nighthawks is now open
Home of the web’s best political conversation Why not relax, and converse into the night on the day’s events in PB NightHawks. If you’re a lurker, why not delurk? You’ll find delurking, So Good, don’t think you fall into the category of You Say It Best, When You Say Nothing At All, I’m sure your Words, will be a great contribution to pb. The round up of recent events (click on the links below, and it will bring up the…
Suddenly people are wondering whether Farage is losing it
Maybe UKIP’s not a certainty to win most votes at EP2014 after all There’ve been several pieces today about Nigel Farage’s performance on Question Time last night held in what became a UKIP stronghold at the May local elections, Boston in Linconshire. It might just have been the audience or he was having an off night but he came over badly as seen in the clip above. Under the heading “Is Nigel Farage losing his touch?” Sebastian Payne on the…
GE2015 could be decided by whether enough people have felt the benefit of this ‘economic recovery’
Henry G Manson on Ed and Dave’s big gambles These last few months have witnessed David Cameron and Ed Miliband place a sizeable political wager against each other, with the keys to Downing Street at stake. The Conservative leader believes the economy will show positive signs of recovery by 2015 and enough indication that the government has made good on its promise to repair the economy. The Labour leader on the other hand is gambling that even with 6 more…
Local By-Election Preview: November 7th 2013
Kingswood on Corby (Lab Defence) Result of last election (2011): Lab 22, Con 4, Lib Dem 3 (Lab overall majority of 15) Result of ward at last election (2011): Emboldened denotes elected Labour 1,052, 1,027, 1,015 Conservatives 413, 332 Candidates duly nominated: Elise Elliston (Lab), Phil Ewers (Con), Julie Grant (Lib Dem), Peter McGowan (UKIP) The electors of Corby district and the electors of Corby constituency may be forgiven for being seen as out of step with each other. Labour…
At GE2010 political gamblers and the bookies seriously understimated LAB
Those who “bought” LAB seats made a packet About once a month, it seems, like this morning I get called by a journalist who wants to know whether the general election betting prices reflect over-optimism by Tory supporters about their party’s projects. What had happened last time he asked? The theory we have heard so many times before: Those with the money to risk on the spread betting markets are probably richer and, “therefore”, Tory This prompted me to dig…
Exactly 18 months to go before GE2015 a look at whether incumbent governments ALWAYS recover
The evidence is mixed The above chart was compiled by taking the polling average closest to the 18 month point before election day. As can be seen the first opposition leader to break the rule was Mrs. Thatcher in 1979. Jim Callaghan’s government performed worse on election day than the polls 18 months beforehand – but then, of course, there was the “winter of discontent”. In 1983 Mrs. Thatcher saw the biggest variation on the polling average 18 months earlier…