Telegraph Is the sky the limit for the Penrith PPC? There’s a lot been written in recent days about Rory Stewart who has just been selected as Tory PPC for the safe seat of Penrith. By any standard he’s got an extraordinary CV and even went to Eton followed by Oxford which seems to be the standard background for so many. But just read this from Anna van Praagh’s Sunday Telegraph profile: “Britain doesn’t make men like Rory Stewart any…
How come he was even thought to be a contender? The splash leads of both the Times and the Guardian won’t make happy reading at the home office this morning. For the David Nutt resignation looks set to be followed by others raising questions over whether ministers are ever serious when they ask experts for advice. Adding to their problems is the home secretary’s appearance with Adam Boulton on SkyNews yesterday when he appeared to totally lose it under close…
Could this solve Cameron’s Lisbon ratification difficulties? Tim Montgomerie at ConservativeHome has an important post tonight setting out what he believes will be Cameron’s new approach to the EU issue following the likely ratification within the next few days of the Lisbon Treaty. In broad terms the plan is to substitute the holding of a referendum (which always looked difficult once ratification happened) with putting the fight for repatriation of key EU powers in the Tory general election manifesto –…
Atlantic City (Wikimedia Commons) Will Corzine scrape home in a tight race? Unlike Virginia which appears a done deal, the second of the gubernatorial elections on Tuesday, in the “Garden State” of New Jersey is a much tighter affair, with a key difference being the presence of an Independent candidate who has been polling in the teens. This race may yet see the re-election of the incumbent Governor despite his low approval ratings, and despite the lack of markets with…
Have Johnson and Miliband (D) become less likely? With Alan Johnson not having too good a time of it after his sacking Professor David Nutt and the increased speculation over David Miliband going for the EU job the two who have both been favourites at various times have moved out in the betting. Johnson has sounded truly awful over the Nutt issue – his interview on SkyNews this morning was hardly that of a man who you could see as…
ICM Nov 1-2 1996 How Gord would kill for 34% shares today! One of the challenges with trying to work out whether a Tory victory is a foregone conclusion is that the only modern parallel is Labour’s run up to the Tony Blair landslide in May 1997 – something that’s made much harder by big changes in polling practice and the fact that the only firm doing it now almost exactly as it was doing it then is ICM. Featured…
CON 42%(-2) LAB 25%(-2) LD 21%(+3) And Nick Clegg gets to just four points behind Another month goes by and Labour’s polling position remains dire with no respite in sight. For a new ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph just being reported suggests that there’s been little change between the main parties since the last survey from the firm in the Guardian a week and a half ago. Both Labour and the Tories are down two with the Lib Dems…
Tory and Labour General election leaders 1979 – 2005 General Election Majority PaddyPower: 1/4 CON majority: 3/1 Hung parliament: 12/1 LAB Majority Ladbrokes: 1/3 CON majority: 3/1 Hung parliament: 12/1 LAB Majority William Hill: 2/7 CON majority: 11/4 Hung parliament: 14/1 LAB Majority General Election most seats PaddyPower: 1/16 CON: 7/1 LAB: 80/1 Lib Dems Ladbrokes: 1/14 CON: 7/1 LAB: 100/1 Lib Dems William Hill:1/14 CON: 13/2 LAB: 80/1 Lib Dems Victor Chandler: 1/14 CON: 13/2 LAB: 80/1 Lib Dems…