There was an ICM voting intention poll released on June 16th. Not many people noticed it; the polling companies aren’t shouting from the rooftops about their work at the moment, for obvious reasons. Mostly, they keep doing them so that there aren’t historical gaps in polling data (thus ensuring that graphing trends over time is […]
The Labour leadership race gets nasty – they best watch it from here
John Woodcock, who is openly supporting Liz Kendall for leader, has said the following regarding Cooper and Burnham: “If those who seek to take his place think the route to victory in the leadership contest is Continuity Miliband with a different accent or gender, or with a higher level of emotional connection, they will consign […]
Almost 14 years on from September 11th, 2001, and our language around terrorism is still wrong
In the aftermath of the Sousse massacre, David Cameron has spoken a fair amount about the tragedy, both in the House and in public. On Radio 4 the other day, he was talking about Daesh (I’m refusing to call them ISIS or ISIL ever again, except in the context of a quote – they aren’t […]
When Cameron campaigns to stay in the EU, how will the right wing press handle it?
I’ll start off by saying I usually find most attacks on the right of centre press by the Left to be over the top and silly. The idea that they conspire in a room together about how to keep the “establishment” clutching the reigns of power; the fact that the word bias is thrown at […]
Why I’ve written a lot more about the Labour leadership contest than the Lib Dem one
I have been chastised by many a Liberal Democrat on social media platforms for writing about the race to be Labour leader so much. Why don’t I talk about the Lib Dem contest half as much? First, why I enjoy writing about the quest for the Labour top job: from an objective political viewpoint, it’s […]
Michael Howard Syndrome explained, as the Independent poll on Labour leadership throws up some interesting numbers
The Indy has hired polling company ORB to do a survey on the Labour leadership contest. It has a large sample size at 2,000, so for those of us who are already nerdily watching the proceedings, the results were revealing. First, the more predictable stuff: Burnham is seen by the largest number of respondents as […]
Daily Telegraph story on Burnham’s private sector “experience” highlights the problems Labour might face from the Right during this parliament
Right, first off, the Telegraph story referred to in the headline: a Rosa Prince smear-a-thon which shows up Burnham’s claim to understand life outside of the Westminster village by revealing that the private sector experience Andy had previously talked up involved a marketing business that was run by his wife – not himself at all. […]
Labour will never be able to out-UKIP UKIP on immigration. It needs another message
“Of course we need to win back Labour supporters who voted Tory in May , but if we are to win we also have to understand why so many Labour supporters voted Ukip,” Tom Watson told the assorted faithful at a deputy leadership event held in Dagenham very recently. Only calling them the faithful seems […]
When is a terrorist not a terrorist?
Last night, BBC News led their 10 PM news programme with a story about how nine Brits have gone to Syria recently, presumably to fight in the civil war there, although that wasn’t 100% clear. Nine people. How many folk in this country believe that Elvis is still alive? I’m willing to place a bet […]
What is it with Labour and their ex-leaders anyway?
One of the home truths about the Labour Party that is actually true is the one about how Labour really doesn’t do regicide all that well. You only need to look at all of the bungled coups to dethrone both Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband to understand this fully. There is a tendency to wait […]