Sean Fear’s Friday slot

Sean Fear’s Friday slot

The Battle of Barnet Nothing showed the extent of Labour’s triumph in 1997 more clearly than the way they took one supposedly rock solid Conservative seat after another in North London, including Hendon and Finchley & Golders Green. Up until 1994, when they lost overall control, the Conservatives had dominated Barnet council, since its creation in 1964. At Parliamentary level, they had won every seat up until the 1997 earthquake. Barnet was divided into four constituencies up until 1997, and…

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Could this be a serious blow for Brown?

Could this be a serious blow for Brown?

Will his own union not give his leadership bid its blessing? If Gordon did not look such a certainty for the Labour leadership then this latest news about unions backing could have been an enormous blow. For as the Mirror writer, Kevin Maguire, notes in a blog piece on the Mirror web-site there a real chance that the new super union made up of Amicus and the T&G might not give Brown its endorsement. This union, when the merger goes…

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Could the French Socialists miss the run-off once again?

Could the French Socialists miss the run-off once again?

The “Third Man”, François Bayrou, continues to move forward in the polls As the latest betting prices in the French Presidential election show the big movement since the end of February has been to the so called “Third Man” in the race, the centrist candidate, François Bayrou. This follows a spate of recent polls that show he is now within striking distance of the two front-runners, the Right’s Nicolas Sarkozy and the Socialist party’s Ségolène Royal. This could be critical…

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Has the BBC been duped by Harriet’s poll spin?

Has the BBC been duped by Harriet’s poll spin?

Is it too much to ask journalists to check the data? Reports of an interview with the Deputy Leadership candidate, Harriet Harman, were published on the BBC web-site this morning in which she quoted from a privately commissioned YouGov poll that was carried out in November. The findings, according to the article, “…show that the Harman/Brown dream ticket is the one with most appeal to “swing voters,” the poll suggests, with 15% of those surveyed saying Ms Harman would make…

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Will May’s elections be overseen by Euro fraud monitors?

Will May’s elections be overseen by Euro fraud monitors?

What a finale for the final days of Tony Blair? On the day after the historic decision by the Commons to back a 100% elected House of Lords there’s news this morning that the Welsh and Scottish elections as well as the English local council elections on May 3rd could be scrutinised for vote tampering and fraud by a European Human Rights watchdog. If this happens the UK would be the first western democracy to have its electoral processes scrutinised…

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How much will the Harrogate fiasco cost the Lib Dems?

How much will the Harrogate fiasco cost the Lib Dems?

Why equidistance between the main parties should be Ming’s only policy Recriminations are continuing within the Lib Dems over the cock-up in Harrogate at the weekend that caused almost all of the media to report that Ming would do a deal with Gord but not Dave. Whether or not the leader was saying he favoured Labour really does not matter. What is key is how it was reported and the ammunition it will provide for both the Tories and Labour…

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BrandIndex betting by Peter the Punter

BrandIndex betting by Peter the Punter

Finally Lost One! It’s taken six weeks but we finally suffered our first defeat in the weekly contest with Anthony Wells of YouGov and his Politicians’ Popularity Index. In fact it should be ‘I suffered’ because for reasons we won’t go into, I did all the selections last week. Benn’s improvement was a surprise. Maybe there’s an instructive cross-reference to his performance in the Deputy Leader race. If he’s still available at 3/1 for that, I’d be tempted. Hague was…

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More emerges after Guardian injunction denied

More emerges after Guardian injunction denied

Report – “Did Levy try to get Blair aide to modify evidence?” On the day that Populus reports some disastrous polling figures for Labour and Gordon Brown (see previous thread) more information about what’s been going on in the cash for honours inquiry has been printed in the Guardian this morning. This follows the refusal of a judge to grant an injunction against the paper. According to the lead story detectives are investigating whether Lord Levy urged Ruth Turner to…

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