He describes the authoritarian and grossly under-reported way in which our future MPs, and ministers, are being chosen.
This region contains a sizeable clutch of those crucial ‘Labour Leave’ seats through which the Prime Minister is trying to pave his path to an overall majority.
We can’t win a workable majority without breaking through in more seats in the urban and suburban North and Midlands.
Plus: Thither goes Harry Cole – to the Sun. Here comes Tim Montgomerie – on a diet. And: Tracey Crouch, sports mastermind.
The Tories ousted Ed Balls and the Liberal Democrats managed to return two seats, but otherwise this region was a low-scoring draw for the main parties.
The commonly-held belief on the Right that academia is a leviathan of leftist groupthink is a little wide of the mark.
I have also taken another look at Sheffield Hallam and South Swindon.
The battlegrounds show a mix of results. But UKIP is down across the board.
The region, which the Yorkshire Post argues should have its own Minister, is the scene of intense campaigning.
The left-wing vote in the seat is split – and I can come through the middle, as a candidate who was born and bred in the constituency.
Swing voters prefer Cameron to Miliband but, by a greater margin, Labour to the Conservatives.
A review of three polls.
Plus: Lord Ashcroft’s Scotland poll – I must revise my predictions. Abuse in Rotherham. An upset in Sheffield? My drivetime success. And: in memoriam, Martin Gilbert.
I launch today a new section of my website featuring an index of the 114 seats I have surveyed since last May.
We saw some huge swings in this ‘People’s Republic’ and we’re now second in every seat but one.