Populus boost for Darling/Brown over Northern Rock

Populus boost for Darling/Brown over Northern Rock

Half the voters support nationalisation A “quickie” poll by Populus for tomorrow’s Times has some good news for the government over the Northern Rock crisis. A total of 519 people were interviewed last night with 49% backing nationalisation. The sample supported Darling remaining as Chancellor by 50 to 38 per cent. But it’s not all plain sailing. 58% blamed the Labour Government for some of the problems while 64% blamed the Bank of England and City authorities. There was most…

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Upcoming Server Maintenance

Upcoming Server Maintenance

As some of you may have noticed at 2:20am on Super Tuesday, our existing server infrastructure (which was put in place three and a half years ago), is creaking. A new server has been acquired, and on Sunday (starting in the small hours of the morning) we’ll be migrating everything across. With a little luck, everything will be up and running by 8am on Sunday morning. But, of course, it may take longer, be more complex, etc., than anticipated. Normal…

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Is it time to be betting on PRESIDENT Tony?

Is it time to be betting on PRESIDENT Tony?

Will the Stop-Blair coalition get its way? I was slightly reticent about doing this story because the words “Tony Blair” and “European Union” don’t bring out the best in parts of the PBC community. But why not because there is lots of coverage today about Tony Blair’s desire to try to become President of Europe and the coalition of interests that is lining up to try to stop him. Rod Liddle in the Spectator notes that “..the former PM has…

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McCain bombshell as UK betting exceeds 10m pounds

McCain bombshell as UK betting exceeds 10m pounds

Betfair alone sees £5m being traded on the White House race With eight and a half months to go before the US election in November it’s clear that the race will become the biggest political betting event ever on UK markets. So far on the Betfair exchange alone just on £5m worth of bets have been traded and my estimate is that with the spread firms and the fixed odd bookies well over £10m has now been wagered on the…

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Is this how to get round political funding rules?

Is this how to get round political funding rules?

Are there lessons for the UK in this NON-AD for Hillary? Under US campaign funding rules the maximum that anyone can donate is $2300. This is one of the reasons why the Clinton campaign has found it hard to compete with Obama who has built up a mass fundraising base. But there are not the same limitations if you give to other organisations and some big Clinton supporters are said to be behind the latest initiative. The above ad, reported…

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FT poll: Britons would “vote” Hillary if they could

FT poll: Britons would “vote” Hillary if they could

One “poll” that we haven’t yet covered was one by Harris in the Financial Times yesterday where interviewees in several European countries were asked about who they would “vote” for in the Democratic race if they had a chance – Hillary or Obama. A total of 5,000 people were asked across five countries with Obama coming out the decisive winner in four of them. The French, Italians, Spanish and Germans all gave it to the black Senator by quite big…

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Should Gord have followed PB on Obama?

Should Gord have followed PB on Obama?

Does he regret snubbing Barack back in the summer? A story in the Times overnight has it that Brown is desperately trying to build relations with Barack Obama after snubbing the now Democratic front-runner during the summer. According to the paper a meeting had been tentatively fixed but then Downing Street “got the willies” and the possible future President of the United States was offered a drop by private meeting instead. President Sarkozy of France, by contrast, offered Mr Obama…

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How long can she go on being rejected?

How long can she go on being rejected?

Does another double-digit defeat mean that she’s nearly out? With Wisconsin delivering another sharp blow to the Hillary campaign it is beginning to look as though this might soon be over. What was startling in the latest primary was the sheer scale of Obama’s victory which was well in excess of almost anything that had been predicted by the polls. This suggests, as we have seen in the other post-Super Tuesday contests, that the Obama camp is much more effective…

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