PB Night hawks is now open

PB Night hawks is now open

Home of the web’s best political conversation If you’ve had a Blue Monday, why not relax, and converse into the night on the day’s events. If you’ve always been a lurker, Get Ready, this thread is for you, you’ll have a New Order in your life, if you start posting, I’m sure you’ll have a Fine Time. The round up of recent events (click on the links below, and it will bring up the relevant story) MPs declare £7m income…

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Comres: European Election poll

Comres: European Election poll

Comres has conducted a poll for Open Europe on the European elections next year, the changes are from the European elections in 2009, The fieldwork was from the 22nd until the 24th of May, and 2003 adults were surveyed UKIP will be delighted with this poll, the Tories will be alarmed to be polling at 21% but delighted they’re only 2% behind Labour. The Lib Dems are polling higher than they did in 2009. The other salient parts (from the…

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Is Ed Miliband Cameron’s secret antidote to the UKIP surge?

Is Ed Miliband Cameron’s secret antidote to the UKIP surge?

New PB thread, Is Ed Miliband Cameron’s secret antidote to the UKIP surgewww7.politicalbetting.com/index.php/arch… twitter.com/TSEofPB/status… — TSEofPB (@TSEofPB) May 26, 2013 A little over a week ago, there was a report in The Times (££) talking about UKIP’s future fundraising plans. In a significant re-casting of its pitch to would-be supporters, the party is asking voters to “lend” their support for next year’s European elections but to give no further commitment. To achieve this, they will set up a special bank account, the…

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Is masterly inactivity the government’s best course?

Is masterly inactivity the government’s best course?

  Any meaningful new initiative will generate more trouble than it’s worth It is not unusual for the Queen’s Speeches of any given government to thin out as the parliament progresses.  Inevitably, those policies it ranked as most significant when it took office are likely to be introduced first, alongside the quick wins that help it to generate its own momentum. Consequently, by the second half of the parliament, what’s left are policies which are either complex or of secondary…

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Tory backbenchers warn “Cameron may have to break up the coalition to remain leader”

Tory backbenchers warn “Cameron may have to break up the coalition to remain leader”

The Sunday Times is reporting that (££) “A growing number of the talented 2010 intake of MPs, who could play a key role in deciding Cameron’s fate, now believe their party should withdraw from the coalition at least a year before the next general election in 2015. They believe Cameron may have to lead a minority government to save seats. “We are the ones who are going to be picking up the pieces if we go down in 2015. The…

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How Ed Miliband compares to his predecessors

How Ed Miliband compares to his predecessors

Now that we’re just a little under two years from the General Election, I thought it might be useful to see how Dave and Ed compare to the predecessors as Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition, and used their net approval ratings with Ipsos-Mori In the first of this series, I’m starting with how Ed Miliband compares with his predecessors in terms of net ratings.   A couple of notes about the data. 1) The figure from Margaret Thatcher…

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The 2015 General Election: Will the Liberal Democrats make net gains?

The 2015 General Election: Will the Liberal Democrats make net gains?

  Yes, you did read that headline correctly, it wasn’t a typo, I am going to discuss whether the Lib Dems can make net gains in parliamentary seats at the 2015 General election, which might seem odd, given the Lib Dems current travails in the polls. Since the start of April, of the 37 polls conducted by YouGov, the Lib Dems have only led UKIP in four of them, averaging 10.4% to UKIP’s 12.8% in that period. In the 16…

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Off on my holidays..

Off on my holidays..

Just to say that I’m off on my holidays tomorrow and this should be the last post from me till a fortnight on Monday. We are heading for Italy and will be staying in Milan, Sorrento, Lecce and Bologna. We’ve never been to Pompei before and that should be a highlight of the first week. The site is in the capable hands of TSE. Mike Smithson