Is Wyre Forest the way to screw Labour and the Tories?

Is Wyre Forest the way to screw Labour and the Tories?

How LD stand asides could help bring about a hung parliament At the 2001 general election the Lib Dems stood aside in the Wyre Forest seat to help an independent, Richard Taylor, in his single issue campaign of keeping Kidderminster Hospital open. Taylor over-turned a Labour majority of 7,000 and came in 18,000 ahead. There is little doubt that he was aided in this success by the Liberal Democrats’ decision. In 2005 Taylor held onto the seat with a much…

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Boost for Brown as the conference season begins

Boost for Brown as the conference season begins

Tory ICM lead down to just 4% With the annual party conference season getting under way this morning there’s a an ICM poll in the Sunday Mirror that should steady the nerves of Labour and probably help Gordon Brown in his bid to succeed Tony Blair. The shares are with changes on the last ICM poll three weeks ago CON 37 (-3): LAB 33 (+2): LD 21 (-1). From a Labour perspective a four point margin is manageable and does…

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Brown in free-fall on YouGov tracker

Brown in free-fall on YouGov tracker

How events are changing the public’s perceptions The above chart is adapted from one produced by Anthony Wells for his latest report on the YouGov BrandIndex tracker. It is available in full form from his UK Polling report site here. As we’ve featured before each day the pollster asks 625 people to give their positive and negative impressions of a list of leading politicians. The figures reflected in the chart are net ratings, based on a five-day rolling average and…

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Would a Johnson challenge cost the party a million?

Would a Johnson challenge cost the party a million?

Is Alan being put under pressure over the cost of an election? It is my understranding that a lot of pressure is being put on Alan Johnson and other potential Labour leadership challengers not to stand because of the cost to the cash-starved party of running a contested election. A figure of £1m to mount an election is being bandied about and given the job cut-backs that Labour is having to impose the pressure on potential challengers not to stand…

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YouGov: Brown falling even further behind Cameron

YouGov: Brown falling even further behind Cameron

Poll for Sun has Tory leader nine points ahead A new YouGov poll for today’s Sun has Gordon Brown falling even further behind David Cameron to the question “If you had to choose – who do you think would make the better Prime Minister – Gordon Brown or David Cameron”. These were the shares with comparisons on the same question just one week ago. Brown 34 (-2): Cameron 43 (+2) The Sun seeks to explain Cameron’s lead by noting “This…

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Is Cameron about to get a polling weightings boost?

Is Cameron about to get a polling weightings boost?

Why are more people “remembering” that they voted for the party? With the brand new Tory logo now published for the first time I thought that this morning might be a good moment to report on a polling trend that could provide a small but significant boost to Cameron’s party. This is a bit complicated to explain but basically in the last 2-3 months there has been a big increase in the proportion of those being interviewed by Populus and…

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Mori poll sensation – Labour 1% ahead!

Mori poll sensation – Labour 1% ahead!

But is the firm embarrassed by its own results? After being behind the Tories in 26 consecutive public polls there’s news this afternoon of a Mori poll taken at the start of the month which has Tony Blair’s party back into the lead. The top line figures with comparisons on the last Mori poll in July are: CON 35%(-1): LAB 36% (+4): LD 19% (-5). The fieldwork was carried out from August 31st to September 6th and so only those…

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What about a General Election date market?

What about a General Election date market?

Will Labour’s new leader seek an early mandate? For all the excitement we might have on PBC the bookies have been most reluctant to open any decent markets on the biggest change in the UK political landscape for more than a decade. None of the spread companies, for instance, has got into the Labour leadership – a sharp contrast with what they did during last year’s Tory contest. I suppose that their view is that it is a foregone conclusion…

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