Should Ed Miliband be cheered by the Dan Hodges prediction

Should Ed Miliband be cheered by the Dan Hodges prediction

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Labour Uncut September 2010 Is the Labour leader really “..as safe as houses..” If Ed Miliband and his team are concerned this weekend about his position as Labour leader then he should look no further than the latest Dan Hodges observations on his position on Labour Uncut. “..But Ed Miliband will survive. Protected not by a bodyguard of loyalty, but one of uncertainty. He is not as much a prisoner of his party as Foot. Nor quite as distant from…

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What are the books we should be reading?

What are the books we should be reading?

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What are your holiday recommendations? Just two weeks from today at about this time we’ll be arriving at our holiday apartment over-looking the Gironde not too far from Bordeaux. I’m looking forward to this enormously if only because it will provide the opportunity to switch off totally from PB for the first time for seven years and do something I never seem to get the chance to do normally – read some books. High up on my list is the…

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Who’ll be next after Ed?

Who’ll be next after Ed?

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Where’s the value in the next Labour leader stakes? Following HenryG’s interesting article yesterday tipping Priti Patel, I thought I’d return the favour and look at the contenders for Next Labour leader. One of the biggest variables in Next Leader markets is timing. With Labour, it should be easier and the default assumption should be that the election will be in Autumn 2015. It will only be before then if Miliband’s deposed (or becomes indisposed), or if there’s an early…

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Should you take HenryG’s 50-1 tip for Tory leader?

Should you take HenryG’s 50-1 tip for Tory leader?

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Will Patel be to Thatcher what Cameron is to Heath? Although I’m a Labour bloke, two of my best political bets have come on Conservative leadership contests where I am now 2 from 2. I successfully backed Iain Duncan Smith at a whopping 33/1 and David Cameron at very tasty 11/1. I think it is worth me dipping my toe in the market at this early stage following a nagging feeling that I’ve seen the next Conservative leader. There is…

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How Balls dealt with similar claims last year

How Balls dealt with similar claims last year

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A look again at his grilling by Andrew Neil This is from the BBC1 “This Week” programme during the 2010 Labour leadership election. Interestingly the lines he used with Andrew Neil are very similar to his reactions today. His problem is that so much has been written about the period and the revelations just seem to underpin what is already known. It’s hard to see how this won’t impinge on his leadership hopes. Mike Smithson

Is all this about stopping Balls from over-throwing Miliband?

Is all this about stopping Balls from over-throwing Miliband?

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SkyNews What’s behind the “Brown plot” revelations? Those who’ve read the accounts of the Brown-Blair wars, particularly those by Andrew Rawnsley and Anthony Seldon, won’t find much to surprise them in the overnight revelations in the Daily Telegraph. What this does is to flesh out what was already in the public domain with the remarkable added realism of hand-written jottings on documents by Gordon Brown and Ed Balls. That the paper has documentary evidence of Brown in 2005 telling Balls…

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But what does this mean for today’s politics?

But what does this mean for today’s politics?

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Will it have interest beyond political anoraks? Just looking at tomorrow Telegraph splash and reading the some of the documents from Brown camp that have been leaked I’m trying to work out what relevance this will all have for today. This was all six years ago – some of the players are still there others are gone. Ed Miliband and Balls, his shadow chancellor were all closely involved but do the public really give a damn? I suppose that it…

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