Would this outcome have scuppered a CON-LD deal?

Would this outcome have scuppered a CON-LD deal?

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British Election Study Would it have taken away the “TINA defence”? Those old to remember the Thatcher years will recall what came to be known as TINA – “There is no alterative” – her refrain when her policies were challenged. Well I wonder whether TINA has returned as the fact of the coalition continues to dominate the political debate. The above projection on what AV would have done to the 2010 election outcome is part a mass of information now…

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Where now for Kennedy?

Where now for Kennedy?

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Has Labour misplayed its defections game? It’s well known that Charles Kennedy was not happy with the Lib Dem-Conservative coalition deal when it was put together and by all accounts, remains so. That’s been reinforced by a spate of newspaper articles today that suggest that he might be, or might have been, considering defecting to Labour. As Nick Palmer notes in this morning’s thread, the mere fact that the story’s come out without a simultaneous defection indicates that it’s not…

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Australia 2010: Election Night

Australia 2010: Election Night

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ABC News Could this cliffhanger election be heading for a hung parliament? The babies have been kissed, the staged events are done, the former leaders have made their cameo appearances (the knifing of Rudd the “elephant in the room” for Labor), and the psychic animals have had their say (the octopus and crocodile for Gillard, and the snail and spiny anteater for Abbott). It’s been something of a scrappy campaign, and rather a strange one – indeed it’s been described…

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Do we agree with Nick on this?

Do we agree with Nick on this?

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BBC News Would it have been worse without the coalition deal? In a Radio 4 interview to be broadcast on Sunday night the LD leader and deputy PM, Nick Clegg, asserts that his party would be in a worse position in the polls if they had not entered into the coalition agreement with the Tories. If they had stood aside then nobody would be taking any notice of the party now. The BBC report goes on: “Being in government meant…

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Could there be celebrations like this for another 7 years?

Could there be celebrations like this for another 7 years?

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SkyNews What could it do to the SNP’s re-election chances? It’s exactly a year ago today that the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, was freed on compassionate grounds by the SNP-led Scottish government after receiving a doctor’s report saying that he had only got three months to live. We all remember the row and how it has continued to erupt as we saw during David Cameron’s visit to Washington last month. One report today suggests that…

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Looking forward to the US mid-terms

Looking forward to the US mid-terms

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Betfair Politics Are the Republicans going to take the house? Almost certainly the most important elections in the world in the next three month will be the US MidTerms. This comes up every four years half way through presidential terms. At stake are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and a third of the 100 seats in the Senate. The former have two year terms while the latter serve for six years. There are also a large number…

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Can Labour get some traction on universal benefits?

Can Labour get some traction on universal benefits?

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Is this the way of winning back middle class support? I am writing this on board the excellent X5 bus – the twice an hour service that links Oxford with Cambridge. The vehicles have recently been upgraded – there are leather seats and there’s even free wi-fi. Best of all because I am over 60 I can travel to Cambridge and back for absolutely nothing simply by showing my bus pass, see above, that is valid all over England. It…

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