Could the marginals bring a smile back to his face?

Could the marginals bring a smile back to his face?

How are the parties doing in the seats where it matters most? Later today I’m hoping that we’ll see the third in a polling series which is looking at the next election from a very specific viewpoint – what’s happening in the LAB>CON marginals where Labour is defending majorities of between 6 per cent and 14 per cent. For unlike normal voting intention polls where electors in the 600 or so seats across England, Scotland, and Wales can be involved,…

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What’ll conspiracy theorists make of the Glenrothes fiasco?

What’ll conspiracy theorists make of the Glenrothes fiasco?

Why have the key by-election records “gone missing”? The Glenrothes by election last November was critical to the personal standing of the prime minister. The constituency is adjacent to Gordon’s, both he and his wife campaigned there, and the Labour candidate and now MP was the head of the school where Gordon went. The fact that the Prime Minister became so associated with the Labour campaign was highly unusual and was seen as a big political risk. The only opinion…

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Is a Tory victory being taken too much for granted?

Is a Tory victory being taken too much for granted?

How much of a certainty is a Cameron majority? Columns by the Independent’s Steve Richards are not normally my first point of reference but in his piece for the paper today he makes a valid point – the pundits are being premature in regarding a Tory victory as almost a certainty. We saw it in a number of pieces at the weekend and clearly the terrible spate of January polls after what appeared to be a Labour recovery has had…

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Is an “assisted places scheme” being planned for Jacqui?

Is an “assisted places scheme” being planned for Jacqui?

Will she be given another seat so she can stay an MP? According to a comment on an earlier thread there are suggestions that Labour is trying to ensure that the Home Secretary, the Oxford-educated Jacqui Smith, is not thrown out of the commons at the next election. Of the leading cabinet members Jacqui’s seat at Redditch has the thinnest majority and stands to be lost with a swing of just 2.3%. This makes it Tory target number 41 and…

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Has the “un-British weather” taken the heat out of BJ4BW?

Has the “un-British weather” taken the heat out of BJ4BW?

Will the disputes be whited out of the bulletins? A key element that stories like the rows over “British Jobs for British Workers” need is a rapid build up of media coverage and continuing a sense of momentum. That’s what happened with the fuel crisis in September 2000 and what, on Friday, looked like happening this morning. Alas while the disputes are still making some headlines the London-based national media has gone crazy for the snow story. This is in…

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Which of these Oxford men will replace Cameron?

Which of these Oxford men will replace Cameron?

Meet the front runners for next opposition leader According to weekend reports the race is already on for who should be Labour leader after the likely defeat at the coming general election. And the three who are said to be most actively campaigning are James Purnell (Balliol), Ed Balls (Keble) and Ed Miliband (Corpus Christi). Interestingly they are not the front-runners in the betting but have many thing in common. Two of them are still in their 30s (EM and…

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January was another 2 million month for PB

January was another 2 million month for PB

Traffic up more than a third on January 2008 The number of page downloads by PB users in January was 2,043,872 which compares with 1,272,458 in the same month in 2008. PB’s discussion threads continued to be the leading forum on any UK political site. There were 31,067 commentsduring the month taking the total to 925,809 since the site started on March 23rd 2004. We’ll hit the million mark at some stage in the next few months but I don’t…

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