Why go to Gateshead for today’s big event? One of the big political stories of the day has been the big speech by Ed Miliband in Gateshead at which we’ve seen a new Labour slogan (Helping families get on) and a new idea – the “British Promise“. The latter, he said, was the notion that that every generation will do better than the last – something that is now under threat. He argued that “there is now a real and…
Evening Standard website The full feature’s out later – and it’s free After a couple of months when there’s been much muttering at Westminster about the speaker, John Bercow, his wife, Sally, has sparked of more controversy with an interview and photo-shoot that will be appearing in full in a few hours time in the Friday magazine of the London Evening Standard. For the “taster” on the Standard website has, not surprisingly, been getting massive coverage and, no doubt, that…
Is putting the emphasis on Clegg the right approach? Tim Montgomerie, originator of the above poster concepts and editor of the Michael Ashcroft-owned Conservativehome beleives that the best way to stop AV being introduced is for the NO camp to put the focus on Nick Clegg. He writes:“… A model is the defeat of the Maastricht Treaty in France in 1992. Maastricht wasn’t rejected because the French people had turned against the European project but because President Mitterrand was hated….
Smoke and Mirrors. The art of poll weighting So far, in 2011, the polls have had the Conservatives as high as 41% and as low as 32%, Labour as high as 44% and as low as 39%, meanwhile the estimate of support for the LibDems has ranged from 15% to just 7%. Such variation can suggest only one of two things; either the electorate is in a nervous state of flux or the methods used by the polling companies produce…
Or will he be out within days? The drama in Tahrir Square being played out on TV screens round the world goes on but the latest news does not look good for the incumbent. The Egyptian Army chief has told the BBC that it will fire at pro-Mubarak ‘protestors’ if they attack anti-Mubarak protestors. That surely must signal the start of the end game. Without their support the president is surely finished. He says that he wants to serve out…
BBC news Is TV experience key in the political PR battle? As someone who spent a chunk of my early career as a BBC journalist and editor I think that Cameron has made the right call in choosing a broadcasting news man to be head of communications at Number 10. The move is in sharp contrast with Ed Miliband who has recently appointed two senior newspapermen to fill his key communication roles. I’ve no knowledge of Craig Oliver himself but…
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Independent Are we seeing another OES-type move to help Nick? Andrew Grice in the Independent is reporting this morning that there’s growing concern in Tory ranks over what David Cameron might be planning over electoral reform . He writes: “There are growing fears among Tory backbenchers that some Cameron allies would be privately relaxed about a Yes vote in the referendum, since it would give Mr Clegg a big prize and almost certainly ensure that the Coalition lasted until the…