Who does he support if Scotland play England? When the draw was made for the Rugby World Cup there was probably a sigh of relief within Team Brown that the chances of Scotland having to play England seemed remote. But one of the consequences of France’s shock defeat by Argentina last night is that it makes the prospect of such a clash look more likely. For assuming matches go broadly to form then Scotland looked set to end up in…
A guest article by Ray Boulger The impact of the credit crunch caused by the US sub prime mortgage mis-lending is still spreading through the global markets and rarely a day passes without at least one UK sub prime lender, let alone US lenders, announcing an increase in rates and/or a tightening of criteria. The speed and scale with which the problems have spread around the globe is unprecedented and banks and investors are now so frightened of what they…
Sean Fear’s Friday slot Several contributors to this site have drawn attention to the fact that there has been no evidence that the improvement in Labour’s polling position, since Brown became Prime Minister, has not fed through into local election results. They are quite correct. There have been 17 seats in England that have been contested by all three main parties since the start of July, which were last contested in 2006 or 2007, when the Conservatives had a very…
Today’s stories at home and abroad A selection of stories today that may be of interest: A cross-party group of MPs has said “they are confident” that a new campaign will pressure Gordon into holding a referendum on the EU Treaty – are they right? The TUC leader Brendan Barber has warned that Brown’s pay deal for public sector workers could cost him a “political price”; … and Johan Eliasch, who stepped down as the Conservatives’ deputy treasurer, is set…
A guest article by Harry Hayfield Every election there is always a discussion about the benchmark seats, but which seats will come to the fore at the next election? Given that based on the new boundaries Labour would have an overall majority (on no swing at all) of 48, it seems fair to assume that those benchmarks would be: Labour majority of 100, Lab majority of 50, Lab hung parliament, a “well hung†parliament (both Con and Lab on the…
But has he left it too late? After months of speculation, former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson finally joined the race for the 2008 Republican nomination, with an appearance on Jay Leno’s Tonight show while his rivals were engaged in a debate in the key early primary state of New Hampshire. This is one of the latest ever entries by a major candidate in modern times (although Bill Clinton didn’t declare until autumn 1991 when Bush senior was seen as unbeatable),…
Have the media’s critical faculties been restored? It seems now like it comes from a different age but the above was how that normally level-headed paper, the Guardian, was reporting British politics less than a month ago. To have equated the bungled and amateurish attack on Glasgow airport, the consequences of a couple of heavy rain-storms and a few cows getting a disease with, say, Churchill’s first month in May 1940 was just plain silly. The journalist who wrote such…
Will summer 2007 prove to be his high-water mark? It’s a moot point as to whether the honeymoon is finally over, but with the rash of recent polls showing Labour’s lead in the 0-3 point range, it’s generally accepted that the Brown bounce is fading at best (although the Times did note yesterday that Labour are still about 5 points higher than before his arrival). Certainly the polls showing Labour with solid leads of up to 10 points during the…