Welcome to Friday’s PB NightHawks cafe
The best overnight political conversation Have a good evening. Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB
Suddenly Gove is being talked of as leader…
Should you be taking the Ladbrokes 16/1? Anybody who watched BB1’s “The Week” last night will have heard Michael Portillo talk in strong terms about Michael Gove’s chances of becoming next Tory leader. Portillo described the education secretary as a “serious candidate for the future“. His great strength was that “He knows what he is about, he knows what he wants and these are things that people crave.” Certainly compared with others at the top of the betting Gove must…
Henry G Manson looks at the PM’s tax avoidance responses?
Has he walked into a trap that could have been avoided? I was surprised to see the Prime Minister wade into smug comic Jimmy Carr’s tax affairs. It was clearly going to be a short-term populist move to speak of “morally wrong†tax affairs, but it seemed strange. He’s not the only one. In his Budget this year George Osborne went further calling tax avoidance “morally repugnantâ€. These are strong words and no doubt they both believe the public will…
The overnight continuation thread
LAB lead back to double figures with YouGov. 33/43/8 — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) June 21, 2012
Is the potential for Labour simply much greater?
YouGov And the blues have got bigger negatives? The chart above is from a new YouGov poll for Prospect when respondents were asked the following question:- “On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means you would never consider voting for them, and 10 means you would definitely consider voting for them, how likely are you to consider voting for the following parties at the next election?” It should be noted that each respondent was asked in turn about…
Has Boris decided that Gove must be squashed?
Is education policy becoming a leadership battleground? An intriguing battle is in prospect between the two Tory politicians who are most on the up at the moment – the victor against all the national trends in the London election last month and the cabinet minister seen by many as the most successful whose reputation was enhanced by his Leveson appearance. The big political story in London in the past 24 hours is the news in the Evening Standard that Boris…
Tories 5 times more concerned about EU/€ than LAB voters
Ipsos-MORI Why the big MORI difference between the parties? The monthly Ipsos-MORI issues index for June is just out and concern about the EU/€ than has edged up 2% to 8% – where it was in April. This polling has been carried out in exactly the same way for more than a third of a century and involves asking people to name a many issues that concern them without being prompted. Given how the Eurozone crisis has dominated the headlines…
Can the tax scams ever be stopped?
Will the Jimmy Carrs always find a way? Well done to the Times for its brilliant expose of the K2 tax arrangement under which Jimmy Carr and others are said to have reduced their income liability to just 1%. At a time of austerity and cuts this is the sort of behaviour that makes people furious even if it is technically legal. Osborne’s response has been spot on but will the tax dodgers always find a way? In any case…