The 2019 Euro elections – not a contest I thought was going to require a British perspective. Yet here we are, taking at least one more curtain call. Last time Britain elected MEPs in the following numbers: UKIP 24 Labour 20 Conservatives 19 Green 3 SNP 2 Lib Dems 1 Plaid Cymru 1 DUP 1 Sinn Fein 1 UUP 1 UKIP tallied 26.6% of the vote to take first place on a turnout of just under 36%. It should be…
The backbench bill that went through in three days Overnight the Queen signed what’s become known as the Cooper-Letwin measures thus making it now the law that TMay cannot take the UK out of the EU without a deal. The terms of the extension have to be agreed with Brussels. On Saturday David Herdson argued here that this measure has “probably killed Brexit”. With one more deadline, April 12th, now looming TMay is once again off on her travels trying…
Betdata.io chart of movement on the Betfair exchange This Tweet seems to confirm Members of the approved list of Tory candidates have been told in an email from CCHQ that the UK "will" be contesting EU elections on May 23rd — Patrick Maguire (@patrickkmaguire) April 8, 2019 So the chances of the UK participating in the May 23rd euro elections seems to have increased sharply during the day based on information coming out of Brussels. The real interesting feature is…
LAB’s fighting 77% of the seats compared with the Tories’ 96% One of the things that Corbynistas always take great pride in is the number of members who have been attracted to the party since Corbyn’s victory in the 2015 leadership election. With a reported 500k+ the red team is four or five times bigger than the blue one. One the face of it you would assume that this would reflect itself at election time particularly local ones where turnout…
Will feelings about Corbyn and TMay impact on activists? Somewhat overshadowed by the ongoing brexit saga we will get a further chance to test the political temperature in this year’s local elections which take place on May 2nd – three weeks on from Thursday. Nominations closed before the weekend. Because London is not involved then expect less media coverage than normal but the seats at stake, covering almost all of England outside the capital, represent the biggest wave in the…
Will this be influential over the next crucial few days? The prominent right wing commentator and strong Brexiter, Peter Oborne, has published an article raising doubts and some powerfil arguments over whether now is the right time to leave. Among his key points:- “I was a strong Brexiteer. Now we must swallow our pride and think again The economic arguments for Brexit have been destroyed by a series of shattering blows Britain’s departure from the EU will be as great…
Newport West was the 28th by-election to be held in Wales since the 1950 General Election. Of those 28, twenty have been defended by Labour with only one loss (Carmarthen in 1966) so therefore a Labour hold was pretty much a given. However, that doesn’t mask the fact that Labour should be worried. Labour’s vote fell by 13% on the general election, the fourth biggest drop in the Labour vote share in a Labour defence since 1950 (Caerphilly 1967 -29%,…
This market by Ladbrokes is very intriguing, because as if seems likely, the UK takes part in the European elections there’s going to be quite a few betting opportunities. I don’t think Labour or the Tories should be the favourite for this market, the latest poll from YouGov shows why the Tories and Labour aren’t really loved and led by unloved leaders. The don’t know/won’t say alliance now has more support than the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition…