Should this be the new convention for Speaker? If Iain Dale’s “scoop” proves to be right, and so far it hasn’t been confirmed, then later on today the convention that Speakers are re-elected unopposed at the start of a parliament will be cast aside and he’ll face a challenge from ex-Lib Dem leader Ming Campbell. The convention, of course, pre-dates the big changes in the process for electing a speaker that, as we saw a year ago for the first…
Guardian Could we end up with only the Miliband brothers? The Guardian is running a comment column by John Cruddas ruling himself out of the race. The Dagenham MP who came in third in the 2007 deputy race was seen as a possible outsider helped by the fact that he refused to serve in the Brown government. This will shake up the betting. My guess is that it will help Ed Miliband. With Ed Balls said to be concerned about…
Labour leadership betting PoliticalSmarkets Ladbrokes David Miliband 60% 1/2 Ed Miliband 30% 11/4 Ed Balls 10% 12/1 Andy Burnham 25% 14/1 John Cruddas 6.25% 16/1 Harriet Harman 3.3% 25/1
Will Byrne’s “joke” letter come to haunt Labour? In a BBC interview a few minutes ago the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Lib Dem David Laws, told of a letter that was waiting for him from his Labour predecessor when we arrived to take up his new role. The letter was from Liam Byrne and consisted of just one sentence – “I’m afraid to tell you there is no money left.” I assume it was meant as joke but…
Will this be the coalition’s first big PR test? It’s hard to dispute the political logic of this morning’s main story in the Times – Cameron and Clegg are going to need to create scores, maybe well in excess of 100, new peers simply to ensure that legislation gets through the upper house. As the paper notes: “None of Labour’s 211 existing peers can be removed, so the coalition must appoint dozens of its own to rebalance the upper chamber….
A couple of North-West PBers are putting together a gathering in Manchester on Wednesday June 23rd 2010. The venue has yet to be finalised. I’ll be travelling north to join them. If you think that this might be of interest please indicate in the thread below. At this stage we are trying to establish the level of interest. Mike Smithson
Observer Are the new LD ministers the ones who ousted him? Spare a thought this May Sunday for the former Lib Dem leader, Charles Kennedy, as he surveys what is happening to his party four and a quarter years after he was ousted. How does he feel about the fact that many of the colleagues who are now being driven about in ministerial limos are the same ones forced the issue of his leadership in January 2006? And the Prime…
ICM Labour leadership poll Who would you back? David Miliband 32% Harriet Harman 11% Ed Miliband 9% Ed Balls 8% Andy Burnham 2% John Cruddas 2% The above figures are from the latest ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph and are the views of the electorate as a whole – not just Labour supporters or even those who’ll be able to vote in the coming election. An issue of course is that Gordon Brown’s approach to the leadership meant that…