Corbyn and his party’s biggest challenge is making headway amongst his own age group – the oldies

Corbyn and his party’s biggest challenge is making headway amongst his own age group – the oldies

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With the youngsters LAB’s just fine: pity they’re less likely to vote Watching the TV news it’s clear that Corbyn Mark 2 hasn’t quite had the impact that his team would have liked. There’s a terrible lack of consistency and no real clear plan about what the message was going to be. A problem is that the audience for TV news bulletins tend to be the very people that Corbyn and LAB are most struggling with – the oldies. Today’s…

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Lucian Fletcher on the implications of the dramatic events in Northern Ireland politics

Lucian Fletcher on the implications of the dramatic events in Northern Ireland politics

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Embed from Getty Images The resignation of Martin McGuinness means that there is no longer any leadership in the Executive Office of Northern Ireland. The jointly-held nature of the position of First Minister/Deputy First Minister means that with Martin’s resignation, Arlene Foster has effectively been dragged kicking and screaming from office. For those (most people, I expect) who don’t pay attention to Stormont politics as long as there’s no violence, this is all very odd. The government of Northern Ireland…

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Farron says Corbyn’s now “cheerleader in chief for the Conservative Brexit government”

Farron says Corbyn’s now “cheerleader in chief for the Conservative Brexit government”

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.@timfarron : Jeremy Corbyn has ceased to be Leader of the Opposition to become cheerleader in chief for the Conservative Brexit government” — Lib Dem Media Team (@LibDemPress) January 9, 2017 Corbyn’s LAB re-launch day – how its going so far One of the features of the post-GE215 uprising within Labour that brought Corbyn victory in the leadership elections was the way that anyone who opposed their man was tagged by the Corbynistas as a “Tory”. In Labour circles this…

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Team Corbyn makes a generous New Year gift to Tim Farron given that 68% of current LAB voters think it is wrong to leave

Team Corbyn makes a generous New Year gift to Tim Farron given that 68% of current LAB voters think it is wrong to leave

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Corbyn's new year gift to Tim Farron given that 68% of current LAB voters think BREXIT wrong (YouGov)https://t.co/j6UEazIaBp — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) January 9, 2017 Why Labour has to be ultra-careful on its BREXIT stance. More than 2/3 of its voters think it is wrong to leave. pic.twitter.com/F4XkMrsNxd — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) January 9, 2017 Mike Smithson Follow @MSmithsonPB Tweet

After 16 months of Corbyn Mark 1 get ready folk for this week’s launch of Corbyn Mark 2

After 16 months of Corbyn Mark 1 get ready folk for this week’s launch of Corbyn Mark 2

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Save Jezza – trash the media Above is part of a Newnight discussion that I was part of last week which, amongst other things, examined the position of Jeremy Corbyn and whether there was any chance of recovery. I was pretty blunt in the programme though the views expressed were ones which have repeatedly been made before. It was interesting in the programme that the JC-backer in the discussion responded to my points by attacking the media. Labour’s voting intention…

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And now BuzzWord bingo on Trump’s Inaugural speech

And now BuzzWord bingo on Trump’s Inaugural speech

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Can you guess the words/phrases he might use? Well done to Shadsy, head of political odds at Ladbrokes, for getting this together – buzzword bingo on what’s almost certainly going to be the most watched and scrutinised political speech of 2017 – the Trump address at his inauguration on January 20th. These require a huge amount of work by the bookie and and awful lot of risk. Trump has made very few set-piece speeches though his very extensive Twitter feed…

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Macron at 6/1 looks the value bet for next French president

Macron at 6/1 looks the value bet for next French president

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By far the biggest political betting market at the moment is on the French presidential election the first round of which takes place in April. On the Betfair exchange alone £2m has been matched which suggests that this will be a huge market when we get to polling day. All the focus has on the far right contender, Marine Le Pen, who at about 23% is currently the second favourite behind Francois Fillon, the Republican nominee, who is rated on…

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The consequences of what has already happened and the consequences of what is yet to come

The consequences of what has already happened and the consequences of what is yet to come

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Embed from Getty Images   Britain is Brexiting, Trump is triumphant in the USA, France is flirting with the Front National and in countries as diverse as Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands, the far right is doing more than alright.  Yes, yes, but what does it mean? Much energy has been expended analysing why populism and the alt right are doing so well right now.  Rather less has been spent on considering the practical implications not just for individual countries…

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