Is now the time to bet on an early Blair departure? The pace of activity in the cash for questions inquiry has stepped up a gear with the dramatic news this afternoon that Labour’s chief fundraiser, Lord Levy has been arrested and then bailed. This followed the news this morning that Scotland Yard had contracted with California-based computer experts to try to track emails in Whitehall which had been deleted. Both David Davis for the Tories and Norman Baker for…
UPDATED 0745 But with Gordon as leader Labour does better than with Tony Blair A new approach in this month’s Populus poll is in the Times, published this morning, provides a better measure of what happens when those interviewed are prompted with the names of the party leaders and their reactions to what they would do if Gordon Brown became leader. The main voting intention from the survey, published yesterday, had CON 36:LAB 34: LD 19 Prompting the respondents with…
Just out – the YouGov daily tracker The above chart is from a seven page report by Anthony Wells of Uk Polling Report showing the results of the YouGov daily tracker on perceptions of leading politicians. The data is based on a daily Brand Index survey of 2,000 people that YouGov carries out for its commercial clients. It shows two ratings for Cameron (blue), Brown (brown), Campbell (yellow), and Blair (red). In each case the thin line represents how well…
Populus shows Tory lead down to two points The seemingly never-ending saga of John Prescott seems to be having almost no impact on the party standings in the latest Populus poll in the Times this morning. These show with comparisons from last month CON 36% (-1): LAB 34 (nc): LD 19% (+1). So the only change being the Tories down a point and the Lib Dems up one. This is in sharp contrast to Sunday’s BPIX poll in the MoS…
Has he a plan to avoid the weekly grillings? One of Tony Blair’s first moves when he came to power in 1997 was to change Prime Minister’s Questions. For decades the PM had had to face the House twice a week – Blair changed it to once but doubled the time available. He was new in the job, there’d been a landslide and change was in the air. The plan was met with little resistance. Is it fanciful to think…
Will Enfield be the next Wyre Forest? Dr. Richard Taylor caused a shock when he won the Wyre Forest constituency from Labour in 2001. His success was based on a campaign to save Kidderminster Hospital. At the same time, a small political party, Kidderminster Hospital Health Concern, won a number of seats on the local council on a similar platform. Although Dr. Taylor’s majority was cut in 2005, he was the first Independent Parliamentary candidate since 1945, to win his…
BPIX gives the Tories a 10% lead and puts the LDs on 15%? British Polling Index has carried out another of its intermittent surveys for the Mail on Sunday. The pollster has not been listed as a member of the British Polling Council and whenever I have requested further information my emails have been ignored. In its first published survey for the paper since April BPIX has the Tories on 41%, Labour 31%, with the Lib Dems at 15%. The…
A guest contribution by Innocent Abroad A tired third-term government with a leader past his sell-by date is a recurrent theme in British politics. The Tories have been there often enough, and the Liberals too, just before World War I. This is Labour’s first experience of it – the party has never held office (discounting the wartime co-alition) for more than six years at a time before. What is new is the inability of the Tories to achieve the kind…