Welcome to what’s become our nightly open thread – an ides created by PB’s cartoonist, Marf, who produced the picture above. I am told that prints will soon be available to buy – I’ll let you know when that happens. Have a good night – for many it’s back to work in the morning after the long bank holiday weekend. @MikeSmithsonPB
Will either petition get to 100,000 by February? The chart features today’s update in the race between the two petitions on capital punishment – one sponsored by Paul Staines (aka Guido) calling for its restoration for specific categories of murder. The other petition, which was started on the same day is calling for the ban on capitial punishment to be retained. This afternoon’s totals were 17,875 for the restoration of capital punishment and 25,665 for those who want the ban…
Does it increase the risk of the changes being voted down? The big UK story in the Financial Times this morning is something what we’ve touched on several times here on PB already – the possibility that the planned new boundaries for the next election get voted down when they come before the commons in two years time. Jim Packard reports that “that significant numbers of Liberal Democrat and Tory MPs” look set to join Labour in opposing the detailed…
This is the regular open thread on PB. Have a good evening. @MikeSmithsonPB
Daily Star But TMFI Sally – TMFI Do we really want to know? @MikeSmithsonPB
How’ve they done as we end the political year? This week’s party leader ratings from YouGov are now out and show very little change on a week ago. I thought it might be useful to do a comparison from August 27 2010 – exactly a year ago. With Ed Miliband the change is from the end of September 2010. Back then all three of them were enjoying net positive ratings – now they all have at least double digit negatives….
This is PB’s overnight open thread slot. Talk about anything particularly what’s in the Sunday papers as they start to appear. We’ve also the dramatic developments with Hurricane Irene off the east coast of the US. I’ve got a special interest here – my son Robert, his wife Lucille and their two young children are on holiday in Long Island. Robert, it should be noted, played a key part in the creation of PB and continues to manage the technical…
Is the paper embarrassed by what its pollster is finding? After yesterday’s article looking at what happened the last time pollsters were tested against real election results a PB regular contacted me to say that the latest ICM poll was not covered in the print edition of the Guardian. I found that hard to believe so I’ve just popped into my local public library to go through this week’s print editions of the paper. I might have missed it and…