This is not the platform to launch a May election

This is not the platform to launch a May election

If the budget was going to be the launchpad for a May election it has been as effective as the Maginot Line was designed to stop a German invasion, almost like the voters have bypassed whatever the Tories try and do and win election. TSE

We need more bureaucracy

We need more bureaucracy

Invest In Rad Tape To Save The NHS! The State of Process – The Process State – Maybe politicians read PB. I do wish they would read @Cyclefree’s headers, though. So the Chancellor is talking about investing in productivity to save money? Hmmmmm….  But before we think of the inevitable comedy of failure, what could we do different? What is the problem Chaotic and excessive processes slow work down – staff become a servant to the process, rather than the other way round….

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What is Sunak up to?

What is Sunak up to?

Last year I wrote a piece pointing out that Suank was walking into an avoidable elephant sized trap from Labour and the timing of the election, fortunately he took my advice and confirmed that the election would be in the second half of the year. So I am perplexed by Sunak’s comments today as it would be courageous to hold an election when the current polling indicates on course for an epochal defeat that could rival Labour’s defeat in 1931….

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Trump’s Chances – Part 1

Trump’s Chances – Part 1

This is a three part piece. The first, today, looks at the existential threats that Trump faces that could derail him. The second looks at the national polling, at the third party challengers, and how parties have been performing in real elections. And the final piece looks at the swing states and what is happening on the ground. At the end of which, I will, probably, opine on what Trump’s chances are of becoming the first returning President since Grover…

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George Osborne is right

George Osborne is right

Today’s budget didn’t feel like a budget that kicks off a general election campaign in the way Norman Lamont’s budget did in 1992 nor George Osborne’s budget in 2015. I suspect we will have an Autumn statement that will kick off the general election campaign. Just look at that Ipsos polling, the Tories need time to turn that around or at least make it less bad, an election in May doesn’t give them that time, particularly if they are stealing…

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It is this demographic that will determine the Presidential election

It is this demographic that will determine the Presidential election

The most interesting thing to emerge from Super Tuesday, even more so than Trump losing Vermont and Biden losing American Samoa, are the stats in the Tweets above. For a long time on both sides of the Atlantic we have seen headline voting intention figures which have proven inaccurate at an election but the supplementaries indicated why the headline voting intentions were wrong and I wonder if we’re about to see that phenomena occur again in November. Just look at…

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The Search for Justice

The Search for Justice

This evening the BBC will be showing “Sarah Everard: the search for justice“. It will make grim viewing. There is something troubling about the wish to see a programme about the brutal end of a woman’s life, a woman who will remind many of us of their own daughter, sister, friend, colleague. That it was made with the consent of Sarah Everard’s family is perhaps one reason why it should be watched – to understand why what happened happened, to…

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Why Hunt’s cuts to national insurance might not boost the Tories

Why Hunt’s cuts to national insurance might not boost the Tories

Jeremy Hunt is expected to cut national insurance by 2% in his budget tomorrow but I wonder if that is enough to swing things round for the Tories without extra support for the public services. This budget doesn’t seem to indicate a May election, as the cut will only really be seen in one payslip before a May election. But soaking the hard working higher rate taxpayers seems to be popular. The politics of envy sadly appears to be popular….

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