How will the coalition deal with Harriet’s landmine?

How will the coalition deal with Harriet’s landmine?

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Is her equalities measure going to make it harder to govern? If you’ve got five minutes then listen to Treasury minister Mark Hoban on the Today programme this morning as he was pressed on whether the Treasury had conducted a formal study assessing the impact of the cuts on ethnic minorities ahead of June’s budget. For one of the final bits of legislation enacted by the outgoing Labour government was a requirement in Harriet Harman’s Equalities Act to “to consider…

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Is it really getting personal between the brothers?

Is it really getting personal between the brothers?

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Independent ..or is the media trying to breathe life into the contest? After a long period when Labour’s election has failed to attract much media attention it’s all change this morning with several papers highlighting how “the gloves are coming off” between the brothers. It makes good copy, of course, and the weird spectacle of two siblings slugging it out was always going to be the focus as we got closer to voting. But are the papers making too much…

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The betting moves back a notch to EdM

The betting moves back a notch to EdM

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Betfair Politics Candidate Best bookie price Betfair Back – Lay David Miliband 2/5 1.43 – 1.45 Ed Miliband 9/4 3.4 – 3.5 Ed Balls 66/1 110 – 140 Andy Burnham 80/1 70 – 130 Diane Abbott 150/1 220 – 390 If the election is running to plan then the first ballot papers should be going out to qualified voters in the three sections of the electoral college at the end of next week. So far the only firm polling evidence…

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What’s the significance of the ratings cross-over point?

What’s the significance of the ratings cross-over point?

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YouGov The government’s net approval rating drops to zero The big polling news in the past twenty-fours hours has been the move to a zero rating, for the first time since the election, in the YouGov government approval rating. The question is a straightforward “Do you approve or disapprove of the government’s record to date?” The latest numbers were 40% approve and 40% disapprove. These figures started falling back for the coalition at the time of the budget and have…

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Is the Justice Secretary Nick Clegg’s secret weapon?

Is the Justice Secretary Nick Clegg’s secret weapon?

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Guardian Has Clarke become the Lib Dems’ most popular Tory? On the afternoon of Monday September 20th Nick Clegg will have to make the speech of his life to his party gathering in Liverpool in what looks set to be THE event of the conference season. For the reaction of his audience could determine how long the coalition can survive and with it his own future. The stakes are high and Clegg has to be able to demonstrate that his…

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Does the ‘No’ campaign have the edge?

Does the ‘No’ campaign have the edge?

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Tom Harris blog Who will win the AV referendum? News broke overnight that Matthew Elliott, founder of the Taxpayers’ Alliance and BigBrotherWatch, will be leading the ‘No 2 AV’ campaign in the forthcoming referendum on electoral reform. Guido has linked to the a betting exchange suggesting a ‘Yes’ win at time of writing. However, if you wander over to Ladbrokes, you’ll find the ‘No’ priced at 2/5 and the ‘Yes’ at 7/4 (again at time of writing). Now it doesn’t take…

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Is Jackie Ashley right to chastise her party?

Is Jackie Ashley right to chastise her party?

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Guardian Could Labour be wrong by “playing nasty”? One of most provocative “Monday columns” in the the papers this morning is from Jacky Ashley in the Guardian in which she takes Labour to task for not reading reading the public mood right. She argues: “Labour is playing bad politics. The leadership campaign is turning into a tin-ear, foot-in-mouth competition about who can be nastiest to the Liberal Democrats. As candidates desperately try to prove themselves more true Labour, more tribal…

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Are the blues getting most hurt in Scotland?

Are the blues getting most hurt in Scotland?

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Ipsos-MORI But does MORI give a bit of a relief to the yellows? In the build up to what one commentator is now calling “Super Thursday” – the elections on May 5th 2011 – we are going to see a fair bit of polling. For on that that day there’ll be elections to the Welsh Assembly, the Scottish Parliament, local councils in many parts of England as well as the planned referendum on the alternative vote. Ipsos-MORI has just published…

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