Now a move to exclude party members from leadership elections
This move, from Graham Brady, has in my view a lot of merits. Under the British system party leaders are not presidential candidates and I think it is wrong that those who’ve just paid a few pounds a year should have this power. MPs are the ones that work most closely with the leadership and MPs are the best ones to make the assessment. It will be interesting to see if this gets some traction. Mike Smithson
Mid Beds betting – CON and LD up while LAB down
It’s getting harder to see how this ends
The big story overnight from Israel has been the attack on the hospital and the reports of the huge toll of inmates being killed. Both sides seem to be working hard on the public relations front to get over that they were not to blame. If this carries on much longer it’s hard to see any sort of early ending and there will be many more mistaken bombings like this one. They just make it harder for any sort of…
There’s still a big gap for the Tories to surount
Hard to see anything other than a big LAB majority
The Tories tighter than evens to retain Mid Bedfordshire
How death and ill health have ceased to be the main causes of by-elections
This from the 205-2010 parliament This parliament we have seen a huge change in how Westminster by-elections are triggered. It used to be that death of the incumbent MP was the main reason. These days that hardly ever happens. Now it is the behaviour of MPs. Mike Smithson
The polling chart that won’t help Sunak keep his job
Would the Tories do better with another change of leader? At the weekend yet another pollster, Opinium, came out with Sunak’s ratings in sharp decline and there is little doubt that Rishi is struggling with public opinion. The chart says it all with the PM’s net rating down to minus 30%. As we get closer to the latest date that the election has to be held the main parties take stock of themselves and inevitably the question is raised over…