My conversation with the ex-MP after a day’s canvassing Over the weekend I had a long phone conversation with a former MP (not Lib Dem) who is campaigning hard for his party for the local elections in May. He told me that to test the water on AV he began asking about the referendum which is on the same day. The responses, he recalled, were striking. Not only did the electors he spoke to not have view a significant segment…
How is this all going to end? The mood of the daily tabloids after the first weekend of military intervention is perhaps less gung-ho than we’ve been used to. Certainly there’s a big shadow from Labour’s intervention in Iraq hanging over the whole business and Cameron seems determined not to be seen to be making the same mistakes. First we had the UN resolutions to make it legal in international law, then we’ve had repeated assurances that the legal advice…
The weekly Jonathan on Sunday slot The close cooperation of Sarkozy and Cameron has been one of the most interesting features of the Libyan Crisis. Europe’s two leading military powers have rarely worked together more closely. They used their seat at the UN Security council effectively. With the US prepared to take a back seat, are we seeing the development of a new European military capability? On Cameron’s watch, is Europe taking another step towards statehood? Last November, Cameron and…
S Telegraph What can the whips do about the open primary winner? Of all the 650 MPs who were elected last May Sarah Wollaston was almost unique. For she became Tory candidate following an open primary in July 2009 in which every elector in Totnes, irrespective of their party allegiance, was sent a postal ballot. Other Conservative candidates were selected by so-called primaries but only in the Devon seat and in Gosport did the blues go to the expense of…
Or is a ground war the only way of removing Gaddafi? Lots of developments tonight following the launch by the coalition forces of the joint military action to protect civilians in Libya. The worry is how this will come to an end and isn’t there a danger that Gaddafi will just be able to stay in place unless there’s a ground campaign to remove him? Saddam, after all, managed to remain in place in Iraq with a no-fly zone above…
Might leader ratings be a better pointer in Scotland? We’ve just had two new Scottish polls, from, ICM and YouGov, and both point to reasonable leads for Labour over the SNP in both the constituency and regions sections. But both firms also had leader-related questions that make the picture less rosy for the red team. ICM asked “Putting aside your own party preference, which one of the following do you think is best qualified to be First Minister of Scotland?“….
Does the Tory poll decline result from a lack of advocacy? One thing that struck me from PMQ’s this week was how much David Cameron skirted round defending the greater competition that the reforms to the NHS will bring, assuming that the bill goes through more or less as currently presented. It’s not that there wasn’t passion there – he was robust in his responses to Ed Miliband – but each time the Labour leader questioned him about provisions for…
Could the top pollster from 2007 be right again? There’s a new ICM poll of Scotland that is showing quite a different picture of opinion in the country compared with other recent surveys from other firms. The figures are as follows:- The constituency voting intentions show: Lab 39, SNP 35, Con 12, LD 10, Oth 4 The regional voting intention shows: Lab 37, SNP 34, Con 13, LD 9, Grn 4, Oth 7 The actual constituency breakdown from 2007 was…