By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Labour enjoy a lead in the polls at the moment. The latest poll, for example, gives them a 7 point lead, with the full percentages at: Labour: 42 / Conservatives: 35 / Lib Dems: 10. But as Scotland showed, poll leads can be overturned quickly during a campaign. One […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Following last year's election defeat, there have been two sets of commentators on the left. On the one hand, the all-out, gung-ho "evil Tory cuts!" brigade, and on the other hand, the thoughtful contributors to the debate about Labour (and the left in general)'s future. I should apologise in […]
By Matthew Barrett and Tim Montgomerie On Wednesday, we reported that Tory MPs at the 1922 Committee wanted to "get those yellow b**tards", in reference to Liberal Democrats who were criticising Andrew Lansley's NHS reforms, having voted for it before. In today's Mail on Sunday James Forsyth writes that 10 Downing Street is at the […]
By Matthew Barrett Blue Labour – the new thing in left-wing politics – is interesting. It combines left and right-wing values, it criticises the record of Labour governments – most especially the last – it emphasises values the left publicly abandoned some time ago, and it poses a threat to both Labour and Conservatives. Blue […]
by Paul Goodman The fallout in the Labour Party from the Scottish and local election results continues. Yesterday, Ivan Lewis put the boot in. According to the Financial Times (£) – "Ed Miliband has been warned by one of his senior frontbenchers that Labour is still seen as the “party of the north” and is […]
Tim Montgomerie I am very sad to learn from LabourList that the Labour MP David Cairns has died. David ran the Christian Socialist Movement in the 1990s when I was directing the Conservative Christian Fellowship. We were often crossing swords in the media but we also met up, occasionally, for lunch and he was amusing, […]
By Tim Montgomerie I prepared the image on the right in anticipation of many defeated Liberal Democrat candidates attacking Nick Clegg for Thursday's terrible election results for the junior partners in the Coalition… but I had no real opportunity to deploy it. It's true that a few unknown Lib Dem councillors have said some things […]
by Paul Goodman Here it is –
Matthew Barrett Neil Kinnock has attacked Labour MPs who are against the Alternative Vote – a majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party. He also repeated the Chris Huhne line that Britain is a centre-left country, denied the government it really wants by First Past The Post: "I simply cannot understand how experienced colleagues can mistake […]
Matthew Barrett As the Telegraph's James Kirkup notes, Chris Huhne has been doing the media rounds again, with yet more anti-Conservative comments. Huhne said: "By giving voters more power, by giving power to the people, it’s absolutely in the tradition of the way in which we have improved our system over time, giving votes to […]
Tim Montgomerie No messages of congratulations to the happy couple or any celebration of a wonderful day, just this sour tweet: 1pm: Fifteen minutes after this post Peter Hain tweets a message of congratulations. Coincidence?
Tim Montgomerie According to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg the President of the Liberal Democrats also likened the Thatcher years to "sustained slavery". This is juvenile stuff and leaves no higher rhetorical gear for real outrages. It is of course panic in the Lib Dem ranks. Farron's colleague Tavish Scott – leader of the Lib Dems […]
Tim Montgomerie The overnight YouGov tracker poll gives the "No" campaign an 18% lead – the largest yet and appearing to confirm the Peter Kellner view that voters tend to back the status quo during referenda campaign unless there is overwhelming reason to change. The increasingly desperate 'Yes' campaign have this morning launched this message: […]
Matthew Barrett Last week, I detailed Vince Cable's gaffes since the formation of the coalition. Since then, Lord Ashdown, Nick Clegg, Simon Hughes and Chris Huhne have made various attacks on coalition policy and members, so here is an updated list of the last fortnight, including remarks by Dr Cable: Hughes said "Baroness Warsi, who […]
Tim Montgomerie Many Conservatives will no doubt be amused by The Sunday Telegraph's exclusive this morning. Although both Margaret Thatcher and John Major have been invited to next week's Royal Wedding no invitation has been issued to their Labour successors as Prime Minister, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. A St James’s Palace spokesman issued an […]