Should Gordon listen to Polly?

Should Gordon listen to Polly?

Has the Guardian columnist got the right approach for Labour? There’s an interesting critique of the government’s legislative programme in the Guardian this morning from the writer who used to be one of Brown’s greatest cheer-leaders – Polly Toynbee. Her argument is that Labour needs to develop a rhetoric that goes well beyond the term “aspire” that seems to have been the guiding force behind the Queen’s Speech. Polly suggests that insteads the notion on “fairness to all” could be…

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The PBC Hustings: Nick Clegg – Friday 9am

The PBC Hustings: Nick Clegg – Friday 9am

I am pleased to confirm that the odds-on favourite, Nick Clegg will be appearing on the site from 9 am tomorrow morning in the second of our online hustings for the Lib Dem leadership contenders. Chris Huhne did his spot on Sunday morning. I’ll will publish a new thread at about 8.45am so that people can start posting questions. The plan is that the session should last an hour. Can I thank both candidates and their campaign teams for all…

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Who’d be the “something untoward” favourite?

Who’d be the “something untoward” favourite?

Why my money would be on John Denham and Ruth Kelly I hope that it does not appear too morbid to look at how the “next Prime Minister” market would pan out if something untoward happened to Gordon. So we are talking about leading Labour figures – almost certainly members of the current cabinet. From the list above I would exclude all those who ran for the deputy leadership post in the summer. None of them really shone and the…

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Could Davis claim his fourth home secretary scalp?

Could Davis claim his fourth home secretary scalp?

Is the detention limit extension a good battle-ground for Labour? On the second day of the Queen’s speech debate battle was joined on what’s likely to be a difficult issue for the government in the coming session – the move to extend the maximum period that suspects can be held with trial beyond the current 28 days. This is an issue that the Blair government tried and failed to push before but is one that Brown has decided to raise…

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Will Clegg or Huhne be able to win these voters back?

Will Clegg or Huhne be able to win these voters back?

What can we learn from the “Supervoters”? The above data is from yesterday’s poll and shows how votes are churning between the main three parties from those who told the firm how they voted in 2005. In a previous post I’ve called this group the”super-voters” because those with a record of turning out at a previous general elections are, surely, much more likely to turnout at the next one? This has never been tested before. ICM only started providing this…

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Is Gord on to a winner with this?

Is Gord on to a winner with this?

Or could more flexible working just alienate the childless? Generally the most reliable guide to what the Brown political machine is up to is in The Mole column in the First Post online magazine. And yesterday while everybody was talking about how the leaders performed “The Mole” was reporting that the plans to extend flexible working for people with children was what would “grab the headlines in the morning.” Certainly the idea has caught the attention of the Times and…

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Has Gord pulled back on the Ashcroft money?

Has Gord pulled back on the Ashcroft money?

Party funding proposals “put on hold? I don’t know whether anybody at Number 10 read yesterday’s thread on the Ashcroft money but one of the big surprises in the Queen’s Speech was the absence of a plan to bring in immediate legislation on party funding. This is contrary to all the reports over the weekend that suggested the Government would include legislative plans to deal with Ashcroft’s support for Tory marginals between elections. In fact all we got was a…

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Is this smart spin – or just dumb?

Is this smart spin – or just dumb?

Why does Gord allow this sort of thing? On Queen’s Speech day and coinciding with good polling news for Labour the Times is carrying the above story on how Number 10 managed to “con” journalists up and down the country that a local school would be featured in the Prime minister’s big education speech last week. They all ran the story but then when the speech was made there was no mention of any schools by name. If I was…

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