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…
From the previous thread: “The coalition is the most recklessly ambitious government that I can recall. It has started more controversial policies in three months than the average government takes on in a Parliament. I do not regard this as a good thing.” – antifrank Is he right? Mike Smithson
Is Balls paying the price for supporting Gordon? Judging by the opinion polls, the list of nominations and the number of endorsements then the one near certainty about the race for the Labour leadership is that Ed Balls isn’t going to win. On all the measures he is a long way behind and it’s hard to see what could change in the final four weeks before the ballots go out. Yet if you look at what the five have said…
Is it worth 4/1 that she’ll be the one to take on Boris? Until now I have followed the received wisdom that Ken is a near certianty to secure his party’s nomination for London mayor in that other Labour election that will be taking place in the capital next month alongside the vote for next leader. The wily Ken, the argument goes, has been about for so long and he has such name recognition that he’s almost untouchable. But is…
Would this beef up his party’s fire-power? Yesterday I was having a natter with someone well connected within the Lib Dems who came up with an interesting idea to help Nick Clegg and the yellows with their current predicament – allocate one of the party’s five cabinet places to the former leader, Paddy Ashdown. An ideal position, given Ashdown’s former role as High Representative in Bosnia and early career as a soldier could be to replace the increasingly detached Liam…
Parliament Lowest Lib share GE share 1945-1950 7 9.1 1950-1951 4 2.5 1951-1955 2 2.7 1955-1959 5 5.9 1959-1964 7 11.2 1964-1966 7 8.5 1966-1970 7 7.5 1970-1974 6 19.3 1974 (F) – 1974 (O) 15 18.3 1974-1979 5 13.8 1979-1983 9 25.4 1983-1987 19 23 1987-1992 3 18 1992-1997 9 17.2 1997-2001 11 18.8 2001-2005 13 22.6 2005-2010 11 23.6 Everybody seems to be playing this today following Chris Huhne’s comment at the weekend. The above table shows the…