politicalbetting.com

Just how important is his backing for Cameron? There’s a story running on Christopher Hope’s Telegraph blog that could have a big impact on the general election. He writes: “News has reached me of a potentially longer lasting side effect from “hacking gate”. Namely, that Rupert Murdoch has now decided once and for all to back David Cameron at the next general election..Murdoch’s decision has been set in stone by the all-out assault by Labour/The Guardian/the BBC on the News…

Read More Read More

Is it a storm in a Westminster teacup? As long as the News International phone-tap story continues to make the political weather, Andy Coulson – the Conservative’s Director of Communications – will remain under pressure. The question is how long it can run. Mike, in the previous thread, suggests that it won’t be long because the story’s essentially mined out for the moment. I’d agree with that but also put forward another reason: none of it resonates with the public….

Read More Read More

SkyNews Where does “Hackergate” go now? One of the key lessons so well demonstrated in April by Paul Staines (AKA Guido), with his “Smeargate” emails is that if you want a story to continue to make the headlines then the news machine needs feeding little by little. You don’t give them all the goodies all at once which I think might have happened to the Guardian’s “Hackergate revelations”. It’s doing its best this morning to keep the story going but…

Read More Read More

  At what point does Afghanistan stop being worth it? Afghanistan has always been the worthwhile war, the one for which there was a genuine casus belli and the fighting of which was supposed to make Britain and the world safer. However, the deaths of seven more British soldiers in there this week raises the questions of just what is being achieved and at what cost. It’s well over seven years since the Taliban were deposed from Afghanistan’s government –…

Read More Read More