How serious a contender is he? There’s lots of talk at the moment about the Labour leadership prospects of Ed Milband (younger brother of the foreign secretary) following supportive comments by Derek Simpson, of the Unite union, and his appearance at the TUC. The union boss was quoted at the weekend as saying “If I had to name one for the future I pick Ed Miliband. He has potential to be a lot more progressive”. Ed is still in his…
Is the “NO” campaign now just too far behind? We are not very far off the second Irish Lisbon treaty referendum which takes place on Friday October 2 – and the result will be known just as Conservative conference delegates begin heading for Manchester for the last of the party conferences before the general election. The result could have a big impact on the politics of the UK as well as the politics of Europe for if the Irish are…
SkyNews How potent is the rising jobless total? So as expected there’s been another big increase in the number of jobless and we are now back at levels not seen since the mid-90s when the Tory government was in power. The news comes on the same day that that ex-Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith, unveiled plans costing nearly £3bn a year, to get half a million people off benefits and into work. This is not party policy but the funding…
Politics Home poll Could this be one of the big election themes? Over the past week I’ve been surprised by the public reaction to the compulsory vetting regime planned for those who have contact with children who are not their own. If I’d been asked to venture a view before this blew up I’d have said that virtually anything that helped clamp down on paedophiles would have been applauded by the Great British Public. Maybe it’s the way the initial…
Smart move or a sign of weakness?
Could “open primaries” de-motivate activists? Iain Dale, who was chairman, has produced his own version of last night’s events in Bedford on his own blog. It paints an upbeat picture of the event to select a Tory candidate for next month’s by mayoral by-election with an electorate of 100,000, Iain did a good job in difficult circumstances and very much held the event together. He was watched over by Tory chairman, Eric Pickles, who, it should be noted, blanked me…
Guardian online What does this say about Brown’s decline? Lots of very uncomfortable reading for Number 10 in this morning’s papers – perhaps nothing more so that this in the Guardian by Martin Kettle. Something, surely, has got to give? HAT-TIP ChristinaD on the previous thread. Bedford Tory Mayoral primary: I’ll probably be doing a piece here or on PB2 later about the extraordinary events at last night’s hustings and election overseen by Tory Chairman, Eric Pickles with Iain Dale…
CON 41 (+3) LAB 27% (+1) LD 18 (-2) Now all the firms have them in the 40s This the first public survey for the Times by the firm since mid-July and clearly the comparisons above reflect that. The numbers are very much in line with all the other firms and show that there’s been very little movement during the summer. Populus operates in a manner that’s very similar to ICM and, indeed, the firm usually uses ICM call centres…