Poor Chris Philp. Not only is he being blamed by his own colleagues for suggesting the now binned cut to the 45% tax rate. But his statement at a Conference meeting that companies with fewer than 500 employees will be exempt from all business regulations has been seized upon, with some claiming that it means a complete free-for-all: companies able to discriminate, sell dangerous goods, send children up chimneys and so forth. Not so fast. All that is happening as…
The mood at the Conservative conference in Birmingham this week can hardly have been helped by another opinion poll showing the Tories with a massive deficit. If anything like these figures were to be repeated at a general election then hundreds of current Tory MPs would find themselves out of a job. The big thing in polling analysis is the general direction rather than the specific vote shares and there is only one way of describing that at the moment…
“Courage calls to courage everywhere, and its voice cannot be denied.” Those words of Millicent Fawcett are echoed by what we saw on the streets of London yesterday. A pro-Iranian women march met up with a pro-Ukraine one, both chanting “All together we will win.” A large screen in Piccadilly Circus displayed the motto “Woman, Life, Freedom” in solidarity with Iranian protestors. Lovely to see, but no courage is needed to do this in Britain. Brave Ukraine does look as…
This is what happens when there is a change at Number 10. The new PM is likely to have his/her own agenda and the decisions of the previous leadership won’t always be followed. As to Truss going to the country I cannot see that happening. She is at Number 10 and is going to stay. Mike Smithson
There comes a moment with all governments in power for a long time when, desperate to conjure up some of the old magic, they reprise old popular tunes in the hope – or belief – that they will have the same effect as first time around. In October 1992 severe pit closures were announced. 30,000 jobs – mostly of miners in the Union of Democratic Mineworkers – would go. There were protests, not just from the usual suspects, but from…
Dan might be right but I’ll be amazed if it happens From what we have seen of Liz Truss she does not look like the sort of PM who is ready to U-turn on a key policy less than a month after she entered Number 10. The problem for her is that Hodges has a big audience in the Mail on Sunday and his judgment on her big decision is going to be read by a large number of Tory…
She doesn’t have a majority amongst current CON voters This is something that in all my years of studying and writing about polling that I have never seen before – a party’s supporters not even giving their leader an approval rating of 50% or more The above is from the latest Opinium poll for the Observer which was published last night and has a LAB lead of 19% on voting intention. What is significant about Opinium is that it was…
The chart above shows the changes in the the next general election overall majority betting and as can be seen LAB has a slipped a touch and now no overall majority is back as favourite. Given the scale of some of the Labour leads in recent polls then it is hard to see why why this move has happened. The Tories seem a long way from being serious General Election contenders though that course could still happen. Hopefully we will…