Should he speak at the September conference? There was a suggestion six weeks ago that David Cameron and Nick Clegg should speak at each other’s autumn conferences, That seems to have been put to one side. Instead we have a report in the coalition – loving Daily Mail that the foreign secretary William Hague is being lined up to speak. The idea, apparently is that he should make a witty speech – A source is quoted as saying: ‘It is…
Has the party lost its mojo? The Labour Party used to give excellent theatre. From conference debates to leadership and deputy leadership elections, the battle for Labour’s – and to those participating, the country’s – future was vigorously fought in public. By contrast, the current contest to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour leader has not exactly caught the public imagination. Why? Having just lost power after 13 years, and with the reasonable prospect of not having a chance of regaining…
Betfair Politics Is there enough time left? With less than four weeks to go before ballot packs start going out the betting has moved further to David. The Betfair price is the equivalent of about 70% and has been tightening. Meanwhile the younger Miliband has seen his price ease as punters have become less convinced of his chances. The only thing we have to guide us here is the one YouGov poll of members and trade unionists who are eligible…
Is the real “gaffe” that he’s continuing on the road? Inevitably David Cameron faces a fair bit of flack in the papers for his “mis-speak” about Iran having a nuclear weapon. Following his previous “mis-speak” on his US trip about what was happening during the second world war in 1940 and a pattern seems to be developing. Whenever he speaks in public in the coming weeks parts of the media and Labour attack dogs are going to be on the…
Didn’t voters simply want change? Will Straw’s Left Foot Forward blog has just published a Yougov poll which seeks to find out why Labour lost. Issues like Gordon Brown, immigration, Iraq and Afghanistan are tested. Yet on looking at the survey the LFF questioning seems to have been far to introspective to Labour and focuses too much on issues. For the following, based on polling at the time are the reasons, surely, why David Cameron is now PM. The mood…
What do we think of Mili-D’s plan? According to Paul Waugh on his Standard blog the Labour leadership front-runner, David Miliband, together with Tessa Jowell have come up with an interesting new plan for the BBC. They suggest that it should become a “mutual” with TV licence payers having a “real say” in how the corporation is run. According to Waugh they will say: “Owned by the British public and paid for directly through each household’s TV licence, it is…
Should some animals be more equal than others? One of the aspects of Labour’s leadership election that has not really been questioned is the system itself. For unlike what has become the norm in other parties the choice of Labour leader is not determined by a membership ballot in which all votes have equal value. Instead different values are attached to each vote depending on whether you are an ordinary member, an MP/MEP, or you pay the political levy to…
Should there be higher rates for people in the South? I’ve just had this email from HenryG – our regular Labour commenter from the North East. He writes: ” CLP activists are up in arms at this idea of Ed Miliband’s to pay people South more in tax credits that those in the North. It was flagged up in my local paper today and one of our MPs has jumped on it. This is a dubious idea at the best…