How long can the coalition go on? There are two big questions in British politics at the moment – who is going to win the Labour leadership and how long can the coalition survive? Both, in a way, are interwoven because as we get closer to September’s voting in Labour’s election we’ll be four months on from the creation of the coalition and the key criteria for the movement will be which of the candidates is best placed to be…
Can Monckton attract the climate change sceptics? The is Viscount Monckton (Christopher) – the former Thatcher aide who has become one of the world’s leading climate change sceptics and from this afternoon, it is Tweeted, the new deputy leader of UKIP. Monckton, who has a hereditary peerage but does not have a seat in the Lords, is related to the former Tory Chancellor and fellow climate change sceptic, Nigel Lawson. He is an experienced political campaigner and will add much…
Did his dithering blow Labour’s election chances? The first Thursday in June exactly a year ago was one of the most significant days in the history of the Labour government when one man, David Miliband, had to make probably the toughest call of his political career. Should he join the Works and Pensions Secretary, James Purnell, who resigned at precisely 10pm as soon as voting in that day’s local and EU elections came to an end or should he stay…
“Clegg doing well or badly?” Well Badly All voters 61% 17% Tory voters 85% 5% Labour voters 28% 40% LD voters 82% 3% “Cameron doing well or badly?” Well Badly All voters 57% 15% Tory voters 92% 0% Labour voters 23% 39% LD voters 62% 5% What does this say about the coalition? Some interesting leadership approval data from YouGov suggests that both Lib Dem and Tory voters are not too uncomfortable about the coalition. There’s strong support for Cameron…
Will he be following “The Fink’s” advice? There’s been an intriguing comment from the PM’s spokesman about PMQs – the first of which to David Cameron takes place at the unusual time, for this week only, of 3pm. It was strongly hinted that there will be changes but “wait until this afternoon, don’t want to spoil the fun.” I wonder whether Daniel Finkelstein of the Times was on the right track this morning in his “advice” to the new PM…
What’s the impact of improved Labour poll shares? We have spent very little time looking at the voting intention polls (VI) since the May 6th general election. The next encounter seems to far off that it hardly seems worthwhile. Maybe this is a mistake. For a marked trend in the VI surveys that there’ve been following the election is that Labour has been polling quite a bit above its 29.7% general election share. The latest from ComRes overnight had with…
Would EdM benefit if some of his surplus switched to John/Diane? The first day back after the long weekend and it’s starting to look as though Labour’s leadership election will be confined to the Two Eds and Dave. Andy Burnham is continuing to struggle while left-wingers, Diane Abbott and John McDonnell, look to have almost no chance of securing the 33 nominations required to get them on the ballot. From the perspective of the Labour movement is it healthy to…
Could he have stopped the formation of the coalition? Labour blogger, Tom Harris MP, raises a very interesting counter-factual over what would have happened if Mr. Brown had resigned on the Friday afternoon after the election. Did the then PM’s actions, as Harris suggests, make it easier for the coalition to be formed? Under the heading “Gordon must take his share of the blame for the Coalition” he writes: “…why didn’t Gordon Brown simply resign as Prime Minister on the…