Will this PB post bring a smile back to Gordon’s face?

Will this PB post bring a smile back to Gordon’s face?

Comments 0 Comment

Has he the power to defer the election until 2013? While I was researching the deadline for nominations for the Norwich by-election (4pm today), I found a fascinating research paper from the House of Commons – as reliable a source as could be wished for. It details the timetables for elections to various parliaments, assemblies and councils within the UK as well as giving detail on background and procedure – and contains an amazing loophole relating to the deadline by…

Read More Read More

Has the Beeb made Norwich a big party stitch-up?

Has the Beeb made Norwich a big party stitch-up?

Comments 0 Comment

Are the rules stacked against any indie challenge? A feature of the Norwich North by election which might have repercussions has been the way that the BBC and other broadcasters are able to deem who is a serious candidate or not. And inevitably only those who are representing the main parties are designated the former category and get featured in the coverage. For the others we are usually told to refer to the programme’s website where there is a full…

Read More Read More

Has Norwich North become the forgotten by-election?

Has Norwich North become the forgotten by-election?

Comments 0 Comment

Is it really less interesting than mange tout? In little more than a fortnight, the voters in Norwich North will go to the polls to (probably – see below) elect a successor to Ian Gibson, the Labour MP who resigned following his effective de-selection by Labour. The first postal ballots will be going out in a matter of days. Yet despite the prospect of a direct loss from Labour to the Conservatives, which would be only the second such Tory…

Read More Read More

So not a ‘bonfire of the quangos’…

So not a ‘bonfire of the quangos’…

Comments 0 Comment

But why not more elections? I’ve just read the full transcript (courtesy of PoliticsHome) of David Cameron’s speech on quangos. He specifically says that what he is proposing is not ‘a bonfire of the quango’ but a deliberate move to limit their scope, number and budgets. Interestingly, he was prepared to single out some large and powerful organisations that will be culled or disempowered should he win power – including OFCOM, NICE, and the QCDA. The argument is simple and…

Read More Read More

Did Niall Ferguson fall for the 1990s polling trap?

Did Niall Ferguson fall for the 1990s polling trap?

Comments 0 Comment

ICM Guardian polling series Why the only comparisons you can make are with ICM We’ve discussed this before and will, no doubt, discuss it again because there’s a widespread belief out there that the evidence suggests that Labour will recover as we get closer to polling day. Even last week in the FT the eminent telly historian Professor Niall Ferguson and fellow academic Glen O’Hara were comparing the Tory’s current polling shares with the 60+% shares for Labour that were…

Read More Read More

Are spending cuts inevitable?

Are spending cuts inevitable?

Comments 0 Comment

How could the public debate be made more accessable? The Sunday Times yesterday led with a story that Whitehall Mandarins are drafting plans for public sector spending cuts of up to 20%. This has not apparently been ordered by the government, and doesn’t form part of the Opposition liaison that takes place in the run-up to a General Election: this appears to be unbidden, out of a fear that such cuts will be required, even if they cannot be discussed…

Read More Read More

Will the Tories get above 36% with Populus?

Will the Tories get above 36% with Populus?

Comments 0 Comment

Could we see support for “others” start to recede? Siesta time on my Spanish holiday and a quick look at PB reveals that there’s a longing for a new poll so people can get a sense of whether things are changing. By my reckoning the next main public poll from one of the mainstream pollsters should come from Populus in the Times tomorrow evening. In June the firm came out with what proved to be the smallest Tory share –…

Read More Read More

What’s Sarah Palin up to?

What’s Sarah Palin up to?

Comments 0 Comment

Is her resignation a masterstroke or a blunder? It could be the start of the 2012 presidential election campaign or it could be the end of that of 2008.  Former Republican Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s decision to resign as Governor of Alaska later this month has raised a lot of questions but answered few. In her announcement, in which she rambled and at times rivalled John Prescott’s ability to string non-sequiturs together, she gave few reasons other than the pressures…

Read More Read More