May 4th 2005 – eight hours to the off At just after 11pm on the night before the May 2005 General Election a retired solicitor and a staunch Methodist who is strongly opposed to gambling knocked on my door clutching £500 in twenty pound notes in his hand. Could I, he asked, put a bet on for him? He explained that for the past three weeks he had been doing a daily 220 mile round trip to help the Liberal…
Is 18/1 on a 2006 exit announcement good value? I was very struck by this recent comment in the Times by Mary Ann Sieghart Every time I read a story claiming that Tony Blair won’t leave office until May or June or July, I become even more convinced that he is planning an early exit. Why? Because the only weapon left to him is surprise. If he wants to go with dignity, it has to be on his own terms….
Were these really “golden days”? Comparisons are starting to be made with the last time Labour had to elect a leader while in government in March 1976 following the resignation of Harold Wilson. That contest produced an extraordinary array of contenders all of who could be considered to be “big beasts”. They were – Employment Secretary Michael Foot; Tony Crosland the Environment Secretary;Tony Benn, the Energy Secretary; Home Secretary Roy Jenkins; the Chancellor Denis Healey and the Foreig Secretary Jim…
If you type “Tony Blair jail” into Google Image search the above picture of Blair in the Oval Office is the ninth result. Mike Smithson
Has his reaction to BNP trial made John Reid look more liberal? Gordon Brown is not yet Prime Minister yet his widely reported call for tougher race hate laws following the dismissal of the BNP case has been widely seen as a Government policy statement – an impression that was reinforced by other cabinet minsters rushing to back up the man most likely to be their future boss. Yet the person on whose territory this is, the Home Secretary, John…
Is the Education Secretary planning a big double-cross? With great fanfare yesterday Alan Johnson launched his campaign for Labour’s deputy leadership with solid statements of his support for Gordon Brown as leader and his belief that the Chancellor should get the job unopposed. Johnson also launched his deputy campaign website and a rather different picture starts to emerge. For the materials on show do not look as though they are from a man who is content to be a number…
The Muslim vote Clementswood in Redbridge is one of the most strongly Muslim wards in London (31%, according to the 2001 census, a proportion which is likely to have risen since then). It was also, until last night, one of Labour’s safest wards in the Capital, giving Labour a majority of nearly 1,000 in May. Last night, the Liberal Democrats, who came fourth in May, won a by-election there, on a gigantic swing, perhaps indicating that Muslim voters are turning…
How long before Blair is interviewed? There are worrying reports for Tony Blair in the Independent this morning about the way the police inquiry into the “cash for honours” affair is progressing with suggestions that one member of the Downing Street staff is proving “extremely helpful to the investigation”. In his report Andrew Grice quotes a source with knowledge of the police inquiry as saying “Only two ministers knew when a system of secret loans was set up. One was…