Are we seeing Philip Gould’s “shock and awe” strategy?

Are we seeing Philip Gould’s “shock and awe” strategy?

Is Gordon following the plan of Blair’s former pollster? The revelation in the Daily Mirror this morning of a 2005 paper written by the ex-Blair pollster and major architect of NuLab, Philip Gould, raises the questions – is Gordon following the strategy and, if so, does this provide further evidence that an early general election is on the cards? Certainly what has happened in the past month seems to fit with what Gould was advising two years ago. This is…

Read More Read More

Could Labour suffer if each elector had to register?

Could Labour suffer if each elector had to register?

What do we think of the Electoral Commission’s conclusions? As the BBC is reporting this morning all web and phone voting pilots should be halted according to a report from the Electoral Commission on the voting experiments that took place in parts of England in May 3rd. Then there were a series of trials including internet and phone voting, electronic counting, insisting that voters sign for their forms, and making town centre facilities available ahead of polling day so people…

Read More Read More

The political blogger of the year of Labour

The political blogger of the year of Labour

My nomination – Paul Linford From the moment that West Bromwich MP, the unlovely Tom Watson, visited Gordon, Sarah and family at their Fife home during the first week of September the 2006/07 political year has been dominated by one subject – the Labour succession. For from that meeting Watson went on to resign his ministerial position apparently threatening a whole wave unless Tony stood down. It was unsubtle, it was brutal but it was highly effective. We then went…

Read More Read More

Should the views of actual voters matter most?

Should the views of actual voters matter most?

Is this good news for the Lib Dems? In the next day or so Populus will be publishing the full detail of its latest Times poll and will be following ICM and now Communicate Research in showing how respondents answered based on what they told the interviewer they did at the 2005 general election. This is great news – for as anybody who has done anything more than the most basic campaigning knows the most important electors are those that…

Read More Read More

How much damage has Miraj done?

How much damage has Miraj done?

Was Cameron right to reveal the peerage request? The ongoing saga that is the Tory party took another turn today with the revelation from David Cameron that Ali Miraj, the former parliamentary candidate who had attacked his leader, had only yesterday asked to be made a peer. My first reaction on hearing this on Radio 4’s Today programme was to think that Cameron had made a big error. But now I’m not so sure. I thought that Miraj came off…

Read More Read More

Has the Brown bounce run out of steam?

Has the Brown bounce run out of steam?

And bleak news for the Lib Dems from Populus and CR There are still lots of smiling Gordons to illustrate our main article this morning but not quite on the same scale as recent polls have suggested. The surveys are from two pollsters who have hardly figured as successive YouGov and ICM polls have reported big leads for Labour in the past three weeks. Populus in the Times has with comparisons on its last poll at the start of the…

Read More Read More

Could Gordon torpedo the Tory EU lifeboat?

Could Gordon torpedo the Tory EU lifeboat?

Where would Cameron stand if the EU referendum issue was closed down? One of the most brilliant moves by Tony Blair was his amazing U-turn in April 2004 on having a referendum on the EU constitution. For in one short announcement he completely undermined the Tory campaign for the Euro Election seven weeks hence. The demand for a referendum had been Michael Howard’s device of uniting the Tories on the contentious EU issue. At a stroke Blair had taken away…

Read More Read More

Could Lembit solve Ming’s London problem?

Could Lembit solve Ming’s London problem?

Is this the man to take on Boris and Ken? While all the focus has been on Cameron’s poll ratings little attention has been paid to Ming Campbell’s position. Last Friday’s YouGov poll had Lib Dem supporters saying by 54% – 24% that he should be replaced by someone younger. On the list of Ming’s current problems is next May’s London mayoral election and finding a candidate who’ll manage to get noticed amidst all the media focus on Ken and…

Read More Read More