Is EdM the one to be betting on? I had this email from one of PB’s best informed Labour posters, Henry G Manson, which I’m sure he won’t mind me making more public. “I think Ed Miliband is perfectly placed to win. I literally don’t know anybody who isn’t planning to vote for him in their top 3 and in most people’s top 2. He’s going to mop up lots and lots of transfers. The Blairite wing like him because…
Is the 15 week campaign really a good idea? Yesterday George Osborne announced massive changes in the way that the country financial institutions are regulated overturning much that Mr. Brown had put in place in his first few weeks as chancellor in 1997. Today we saw Danny Alexander making his big statement on which of Labour’s pet programmes of the pre-election period are going to be axed. Next week Osborne will take centre stage again for his first budget which…
BBC News How much is falling in marginal constituencies? The Treasury secretary, Danny Alexander, has this afternoon announced to MPs details of projects totalling £2bn that are being axed. On top of that there’s a list a projects which are being suspended. All were agreed to by Labour between the start of 2010 and the general election. Maybe this is just coincidence but what strikes me looking at the lists is how much seemed to be being spent in marginal…
Was Cam right to get on the band-wagon? Suddenly how the Mili-brothers, particularly David, look is becoming a leadership election issue. Ed Miliband supporters are said to have a sticker which says simply “Ed speaks human”. Iain Martin in the Wall Street Journal wrote: “David Miliband looks, in theory, like the grown-up but it is obvious that he is a man stuck on planet politics trying to do an impression of a leader who understands people (â€I’m realâ€). “ And…
Will Rupert’s big gamble work? This week has seen the start of the programme to get us all paying if we want to read the Times online. We haven’t seen the pricing yet and at the moment you can view stories from the paper for nothing using their preview service. Here you give them you email address and no doubt that will switch to a fully paying service in the not to distant future. If this succeeds then one thing’s…
Is Labour beginning to deflect the blame? The big clashes at Cameron’s third PMQs since entering Number 10 had a more familiar feel to them. The event was much less conciliatory than the first two occasions and Labour’s Harriet Harman felt confident enough to lead on the economy. For the big political battle in the coming days and months is over the state of the public finances and the economy that Labour left behind when Mr. Brown went to the…
How do we rate them after last night? The impact on the betting markets of last night’s first TV debate between the Labour leadership five has been a tightening of the David Milibrand price on Betfair although Ladbrokes reported that most money had come in for Ed Balls. Watching the debate again this morning I’m even more convinced that the only one capable of being an effective leader of the opposition is Ed Balls. He’s sharp, shameless and a fighter….
..or will it open calls for prosecutions? Like many people I thought that Cameron’s statement on the inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday to be dignified and could of itself help in terms of whether anything happens next. The aim was to bring closure and it will be interesting in the next few hours to see if that has been achieved. I was a sub-editor in the BBC Radio national newsroom on the day it happened in 1971 1972…