PBC chosen to be part of the National Web Archive

PBC chosen to be part of the National Web Archive

Site seen as being of “potential historical importance” Politicalbetting has been chosen by the British Library as one of very few blogs that will form part of the UK National Web Archive. A number of institutions are involved and the British Library is handling “sites of research value reflecting national culture and events of historical importance. These could include web pages focusing on key events in national life, museum web pages, e-theses, selected blogs to support research material and web-based…

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Has Jack Straw been sold short?

Has Jack Straw been sold short?

Should he have got a better job for fixing Gord’s coronation? In the immediate aftermath of Jack Straw’s appointment as Brown’s campaign manager there was a widespread assumption that the man who has been both Home secretary and Foreign Secretary would be in line a top ministerial post. Following his hugely effective operation that closed off other potential contenders and then stopped any challenge being mounted the chances of Straw getting something really big appeared to be a near certainty….

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Is Labour ready to forgive the gang of four split?

Is Labour ready to forgive the gang of four split?

Will Shirley Williams be able to “re-rat”? Winston Churchill famously coined the phrase “Anyone could “rat” but it took a certain ingenuity to “re-rat” after being elected as a Conservative MP, switching to the Liberal four years later, and then re-joining the Tories. With the news that Gordon Brown has been in conversation with Shirley Williams the question arises – will she be able to pull off what Churchill did and “re-rat”. For in 1981 Shirley, along with Roy Jenkins,…

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How 54% of voters will get the news this morning?

How 54% of voters will get the news this morning?

What do today’s front pages suggest might happen? Reproduced above are the front pages of the four main tabloids that will greet millions of people this morning. This includes those who buy the paper and those who just have fleeting glances at news-stands and in newsagents shops the length and breadth of the land. The hostile front page of the Express compares with the welcome it gave Blair in 1997 and the support for Labour in 2001. But the paper…

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The Brown Era – the opening prices

The Brown Era – the opening prices

Will he lead Labour to a fourth victory This post is partly for the record so that we can refer back to what the betting prices on the next general election were within Gordon’s first hour at Number 10. I must admit that I cannot read this and I have now closed down the buy spread bet on Labour which I bought a month ago at 271 seats. Will he do it? Will Cameron return to the early form? I’m…

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So what do we think of that then?

So what do we think of that then?

How will it be different next Wednesday? Blair’s final PMQs, as some have observed, was very strange and you almost thought that the occasion would bring tears to his eyes. Yet what a star he has been and how formidable an opponent he has been for the five Tory leaders and three Lib Dems one who have faced him each week. None of them, even Hague at his best, has every really been his match. It’s Tony huge emotional intelligence…

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Now YouGov has the Lib Dems down at 12%

Now YouGov has the Lib Dems down at 12%

Can Ming’s by election team prove the polls wrong? A new YouGov poll for Sky News which was published overnight has the Lib Dems at their worst ever figure from the firm – even below the last low point of 13% in January 2006 in a survey taken after the Mark Oaten and Simon Hughes tabloid revelations. The figures are with changes on the last YouGov poll in the Sun Times a week and a half ago are: CON 37%…

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My favourite defector quote…

My favourite defector quote…

Denis Healey on David Owen…“The good fairy gave him thick dark locks, matinee idol features and a frightening intellect. ‘Unfortunately, the bad fairy also made him a shit.” Mike Smithson