A reminder from five years ago Today’s appearance before the Leveson inquiry by Gordon Brown is a reminder of what to me was the most appalling mistake in modern politics – the decision by 308 Labour MPs to allow Gordon Brown to be elected leader unopposed in May 2007. The Brown campaign went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that no other candidate was able to reach the required threshold of nominations to be on the ballot – and so Gordon…
Jay to Brown: “Were your aides involved in trying to force Mr Blair’s resignation?” “I would hope not”Not a denial! — glenoglazaSky (@glenoglazaSky) June 11, 2012 GB: “This call did not happen” – IE Rupert Murdoch lied on oath – a weighty allegation to make. — adamboulton (@adamboultonSKY) June 11, 2012 This Leveson testimony is, unfortunately, embarrassing. It should be stopped before any more damage is done. — Philip Collins (@PCollinsTimes) June 11, 2012 Gordon Brown’s comments on the activities…
Channel 4 How dangerous is this week for the PM? There was, I believe, a degree of complacency in relation to Cameron in the previous thread on which of the three main party leaders would still be there at the general election. He’s still got a pile of hurdles to surmount. This week sees Dave and other leading figures including George going before Leveson as well as the Labour-generated debate on his handling of Jeremy Hunt. The real danger for…
Welcome to Betfair’s new market Betfair have just introduced what proved to be one of the most lively betting exchange markets in the three years leading up to the 2005 general election. It’s dead simple. The options are; Cameron/Miliband/Clegg Cameron/Miliband Cameron/Clegg Miliband/Clegg Cameron alone Miliband alone Clegg alone None of them Back in the 2004/2005 it was this market where the action was ahead of Iain Duncan Smith’s forced departure and there were moments when both Blair and Kennedy looked…
We’re the attacks more about politics? After a week of stinging criticism there’s some good news for the corporation in the News International funded YouGov daily poll for the Sunday Times. Those sampled split by 2-1 well/badly when asked how the BBC’S performance had been.. It was 57% saying well to 29% saying badly. Interestingly the pollster found that Tory voters much more critical of the BBC with 57% saying well to 35% badly. With LAB voters the split was…
It’s CON 29/LAB 43/LD 9/UKIP 9 There’s a new online poll from the Canadian firm, Angus Reid, in the Sunday Express which has LAB maintaining a commanding lead although down 2 on last week. Before the 2010 election the firm tended to show the biggest Tory leads and consistently had LAB with the smallest shares. Since the election it’s been a similar story but for Labour read the Tories. The high share for UKIP is in line with what other…
How many of the 23 members of the cabinet will still be there at Christmas? 22-23 20-21 18-19 16-17 14-15 12-13 10-11 8-9 6-7 4-5 2-3 0-1
Surely there are vital lessons to be learned? When something goes wrong, people inevitably look for someone to blame and politicians are often keener than most to assign blame, not least because if they get in early enough, there’s a better chance that the blame won’t land on them. All of which makes it surprising that the government’s not commissioned any overarching inquiry into the causes of the financial crisis – plainly the biggest thing to go wrong for many…