SkyNews Could the fast Tory action put more pressure on Brown? The expenses saga has taken a new turn with a leading Cameron aide being forced to resign – not as a result of stories in the press but because of the party’s new procedures for looking at what is going on. It strikes me that this element is critically important as all the parties try to get ahead of the game and ensure that they come out of this…
PoliticsHome Sept 08 Look at what happens when a more refined approach is used Away from expenses and sleaze for a moment let’s look at a polling issue that’s been churning over in my head. It is possible that pollsters might be being mis-led when they ask standard voting intention questions? We know the sort of thing – “If there was a general election tomorrow which party would you vote for – the Conservative, Labour, the Liberal Democrats or some…
Telegraph Is the paper saving the most dramatic to the last? In what could be the expenses abuse with the most serious consequences former minster, Elliot Morley, continued claiming for the mortgage interest on his constituency home for more than 18 months after the loan had been repaid according to tonight’s revelations in the paper. It says that lawyers are saying that the claims could constitute a criminal offence. This could potentially lead to a possible by election. At the…
Audacity.org Could any revelations affect the betting markets? This morning I filled in a PoliticsHome poll over whether I was getting bored with the Daily Telegraph MP expenses exposes. The answer, I suppose, is yes. There isn’t really anything shocking and new now coming out as the paper moves from one segment of MPs to another. But that could all change tonight. We are promised that the next round will focus on MP married couples where, in theory at least,…
As regulars will know we’ve made some significant changes to our discussion forums during the past couple of days. The “look” of the comments has been adapted, the contributor’s name is put at the top rather than the bottom, and we’ve introduced pagination to limit the numbers of comments being shown on a single page in very long threads that are down-loaded time and time again as people follow discussions. Our standard maximum level of comments “per page” has been…
Has Number 10 been wrong-footed again? Judging by the tone of much of the coverage this morning the Cameron moves yesterday have been fairly well received and there’s little doubt that Brown’s comments last night that all MPs’ receipts over four years must be scrutinised by an independent group was his way of countering it. He denied it, of course, but he needed to do something ahead of today’s PMQs which kick off in the house at noon. He’s helped…
How close is the ex-party chair coming to being expelled? No doubt every word from Lord Tebbitt’s comments today will have been noted at Number 10 and Gord will throw them at Dave tomorrow if he gets half a chance. Cameron made a not very veiled expulsion threat at his press conference this afternoon. Could a Norman Tebbit outside the party be an ongoing embarrassment to the leadership? Mike Smithson
Has Dave done enough to gain the initiative? Within the past half hour David Cameron has been holding a press conference announcing his party’s reaction to the revelations of questionable expenses claim by some of his party’s MPs, including members of the shadow cabinet. He listed and almost named and shamed ministerial colleagues who will pay some money back and he’s also announced the creation of a party scrutiny committee. This, of course, is pure politics. Cameron wants to be…