Has the media narrative turned against her? In little more than seven weeks we’ll have the first phase of the 2008 White House race with the Democratic and Republican caucuses in Iowa. That will be followed days later by the New Hampshire primary. Over the coming weeks there will be a build up of stories and betting activity as both parties start the process of deciding who should be their candidate in the election on the first Tuesday in November….
Cameron’s party now ahead on commons seats spread markets The main polling news overnight is a new ICM survey for the Sunday Express which has the following shares compared with the last poll by the firm nearly two weeks ago – CON 43% (+3): LAB 35% (nc): LD 15% (-3) So the main change is that three point shift from the Lib Dems to Cameron’s party reflecting, I would suggest, news coverage during the week following the Queen’s Speech. All…
Are English towns more sensitive to extra motoring taxation? One of the most original and thought-provoking guest articles that we’ve had on the site was the one by Blair Freebairn in October on the nature of the marginal constituencies where the next general election will be decided. He observed that the 201 key marginals “….don’t concentrate in Wales, Scotland, London, the major cities or the truly rural areas. They aren’t really regional. They are heavily concentrated in Medium English Towns…
Your chance to put your questions to the favourite in the Lib Dem race After our successful session with Chris Huhne on Sunday the other runner for the Lib Dem leadership, Nick Clegg, will be joining the site for an hour from 9am to answer questions and discuss issues with members of the PBC community. Please can you use the comments thread below to make your points. Nick is, of course, holds the home affairs portfolio for his party and…
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…
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…
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…
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…