Could today prompt a Tory seepage to the anti-EU party? The big danger for Cameron’s Tories from today’s EU policy announcement is that this could lead to a seepage of support to UKIP at the general election. If you read ConservativeHome or believe their statistically-suspect “poll” of Tory members you would think that the world was coming to an end. Yet when it comes down to it the issue at the election will be whether voters want Brown’s Labour government…
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Are we seeing a new approach from the speaker? The main feature for me of a fairly subdued PMQs was the readiness of the speaker, John Bercow, to stop Gordon Brown from using his replies to attack opposition policy – something that has become almost common place. It happened in a reply on the first question on the NHS. Brown was just about to launch into an attack on some comments that shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley had made when…
What’ll they do now the EU issue has been neutralised? I wonder whether when the experts analyse the 2010 election that the events of this week will be seen as the point when Labour finally ran out of steam. For in spite of all the challenges Brown’s party faced they could still hope that the Tory wounds over Europe would open up again when the Lisbon treaty was finally ratified. They’d seen at first hand how the Tory split had…
Will he get slammed over his “cast-iron referendum pledge”? It’s hard to think that it was just five weeks ago that the Sun came off the fence over what it would do at the general election. It came out publicly for Cameron’s Tories – news that was released on the evening after Gordon Brown’s big conference speech – something that provoked a furious reaction at the conference. The picture above is off union boss, Tony Woodley, ripping up a copy…
A guest article from Socrates (On election day in the US Socrates focuses on a battle that could change US politics – MS) While most eyes on the American political scene have been focusing on today’s gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, the contest with the biggest national implications may turn out to be the congressional one in New York’s 23rd district. The bulk of New York State’s population is located in the strongly liberal metropolis that is New…
Could Gord be planning to go a bit earlier? What’s likely to be the first of many election date rumours has started circulating this afternoon with suggestions that key figures within the Labour party have been told “to prepare for March 25th”. Who has been saying what to whom I have no idea. But going a few weeks early is about the last tactical advantage that Brown can deploy and it does make a sort of sense. March 25th, though,…
Ipsos-MORI October 2009 Issues table Is the evidence that voters don’t give a monkey’s I’ve raised this before and will raise it again – the EU and other issues relating to Europe are not things that get voters wound up. The polling suggests that this is very low down on the list of concerns. Above is the MORI issues index for October – a month that saw several days of the Lisbon treaty being the main political news when the…