Can she eclipse Palin for the Tea Party vote? The big news in the race for the Republican nomination for the 2012 elections has been the emergence of Michele Bachmann, a 55 year old tax lawyer turned congress-woman, who fourth favourite in the betting. This week saw the CNN candidates’ debate in New Hampshire and afterwards almost all the pundits said that she and Romney came out best. The AP video above gives a good feel of her position. In…
PMQs is about more than winning the argument After last week’s performance and the weekend press coverage all eyes were on the Labour leader at PMQs. He simply could not be seen to fail again. His strategy was something that has worked against Cameron before – raising something that’s very specific in the expectation that Dave is not aware of the detail. Today his attack was based on figures Macmillan that suggest that 7,000 cancer patients stood to lose £94…
Are pensions the issue that’ll spark off public sector strikes? Yesterday’s results of strike ballots by the teaching unions, the NUT and ATL, looks set to be followed by other public sector unions opposed to plans to scale back pension benefits The 92% strike vote by NUT members and the 82% one by the ATL, traditionally the most moderate of the teaching unions, highlights the scale of the challenge. Those are big majorities and ministers could be faced with a…
How long can Osborne go on blaming the “other lot” The June “blame game index” from YouGov is out and has the proportion of those sampled blaming the coalition down two points on May to 24% – the lowest figure in 2011 since the first week in January. The last Labour government, meanwhile, is blamed by 40% which is down a point but is still up 2% on what it was in March. I think that this is a key…
Will the cabinet stay intact until at least 2012? There are some very wise words on Olly Grender’s blog at the New Statesman about betting and the likelihood of a re-shuffle. “….From Caroline Spellman on forests, Kenneth Clarke on rape sentencing to Andrew Lansley on NHS reforms, politicians are no longer instantly losing their jobs. Instead they remain there to put things right. Even Vince Cable remained in post after the sting by the Telegraph (for which they were recently…
Is Hannan part of the Tory problems on the NHS? Whatever the details of individual polls it’s hard to argue other than that the Tories have a big perception problem on the NHS. There’s a view that runs deep, a lot of generated by Labour campaigning over the years, that the blues are not fully committed to the concept of public health care. Remember the Daniel Hannan interview on FOX News just eight months before the general election? The interview…
Is the issue still toxic for the blues? After a polling evening that has seen terrible news on voting intentions for the Lib Dems, a worrying picture on voters views of the economy and Labour, there’s are some tricky numbers for for the Tories in a ComRes/ ITV News poll on the health service changes. This found that voters are extremely pessimistic about NHS reform plans and Cameron’s handling of them. A large number are calling for the latest plans…
The LDs drop to a new low with the phone pollster There’s a new Populus phone poll out for the times that has the Tories up 2 to 39, Labour up 1 to 40 with the LDs dropping to a new low with the firm. In other findings just 23 per cent of voters now say they trust the Labour leader and Shadow Chancellor to run the economy better, a 10 per cent drop since the last time Populus asked…