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…
Could the “Turnip Taliban” undermine his leadership? There’s now a betting market on the situation in the safe Tory seat of South West Norfolk where the move to de-select the PPC, 34 year old Elizabeth Truss, is opening up all sorts of issues over the powers of local parties and charges of sexism. Last week the local executive decided by 19 votes to 14 to put Ms Truss’s candidature back to a special general meeting in a fortnight’s time because…
Is Labour really less certain than it was? With the by-election in Glasgow North East due to take place a week on Thursday there’s been an easing of the Labour price and a tightening of the SNP in the battle to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Michael Martin. Quite what’s driving this is not clear but the two leading contenders had a lot of activists out over the weekend and maybe the SNP are starting to get…
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…