Why are the Tories and LDs in such a mess over the mayor?

Why are the Tories and LDs in such a mess over the mayor?

Can either party get anybody to take on Ken? Tonight’s extraordinary story about the joint Lib Dem and Tory approach to Greg Dyke to run against Ken Livingstone for the London mayoralty shows what a mess the two main opposition parties have got over next year’s London Mayoral elections. For both of them have had real problems finding decent candidates who are prepared to give up maybe 10 months for a prolonged campaign up to May next year. Nobody of…

Read More Read More

“The Political Punter” – now launched

“The Political Punter” – now launched

The book that came out of the blog What the publishers, Harriman House, are describing as the “first book on political betting” was published yesterday and a number of site users have already received their copies. Those who were at the party were able to buy it at a special rate and by clicking the picture above a good deal is available. If this is a success then it’s possible that there could be an annual publication with updates and…

Read More Read More

Sarkozy and Royal going to the wire

Sarkozy and Royal going to the wire

New poll has her neck and neck with Sarkozy With just four days to go before the French Presidential election a new poll has Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal and Right-wing front runner Nicolas Sarkozy both on 50% should the two of the make the run off of the top two candidates. Sarkozy, however, is still in the lead for the first round of voting. The pollster, CSA, has been giving slightly better figures for the Socialist candidate than the other…

Read More Read More

Punters flock to Brown after Miliiband comments

Punters flock to Brown after Miliiband comments

The price movement says it all. Now that David Miliband appears to have ruled himself out the prospect of Brown taking the leadership and becoming Prime Minister without a serious challenge looks even more likely tonight. The latest (2300) price is 0.15/1. Mike Smithson

Populus puts Labour at its lowest ever level

Populus puts Labour at its lowest ever level

But are the Labour succession details being held over? The Times Populus survey for April is out this morning and shows that Labour is at its lowest ever level with the pollster. The only consolation for Blair-Brown is that the deficit behind the Tories has remained the same. The headline figures are with comparisons on last month: CON 37%(-1): LAB 29%(-1): LD 20% (+2). There’s no sign in the report of responses to the named leader question – how people…

Read More Read More

Is Johnson regretting his decision not to stand?

Is Johnson regretting his decision not to stand?

Do his Brown coronation calls look like sour grapes? One of the features that distinguishes leaders from normal politicians is their ability to seize the moment and go for it when the opportunity occurs. It is about having the courage to risk failure and take your chance however remote. If by any chance that Gordon doesn’t get it this time then he might rue the moment after Neil Kinnock stepped down when he stood aside for John Smith. Michael Portillo…

Read More Read More

Has Gordon decided that it’s better to have a contest?

Has Gordon decided that it’s better to have a contest?

Is Brown-Miliband contest looking more likely? Over the past month all the indications from the Gordon Brown camp suggested that they were totally opposed to a contested election for the Labour leadership and everything was being designed to give the Chancellor his coronation. We had Margaret Beckett and Peter Hain making statements suggesting it was almost being anti-Labour for anybody to consider fighting against Gordon. There was also the reported plan of Brown’s campaign manager, Jack Straw, to close down…

Read More Read More

Can Gordon’s gang manage the end game?

Can Gordon’s gang manage the end game?

Will they cope as the pressure builds up? Yet again Gordon and his team are having their weekend spoilt by a hostile story about a past action by the Chancellor from a part of the media empire that they used to think of as being supportive. Today in the Sunday Times it’s Gordon’s decision to flog off half of Britain’s gold reserves in 1999 that comes under scrutiny. Unfortunately, as the paper observes, the price of gold has trebled in…

Read More Read More