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Month: August 2007

Has Cameron finally reverted to a core votes strategy?

Has Cameron finally reverted to a core votes strategy?

Are “hard-edged” Tory policies what centre ground voters want? These are the front pages of the Telegraph and Mail this morning and show support for the Tory leadership that hasn’t come from these papers in a long long time. The Mail reports the moves in glowing terms and notes that “the focus on crime will delight Tory MPs who have been desperate for their leader to unveil concrete policy proposals on what they see as the leading concern for many…

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What are the political allegiances of the PBC community?

What are the political allegiances of the PBC community?

Take part in our simple “poll” An issue that’s often raised on the site is what is the political make-up of those who visit PBC. So to find out and to test some new online polling software I’ve created the following “poll”. This is not a voting intention question – it asks for the party you most associate with not who you would vote for if there was a general election tomorrow. Many PBC users, I guess would vote tactically…

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Who’ll be the PBC posters of 2006/7?

Who’ll be the PBC posters of 2006/7?

Your chance to nominate and vote With the end of the holiday season and the September party conferences a new political year is about to start. But before the old one, 2006/07 finally closes I thought that it would be a good moment to celebrate those who have enriched our discussions, and in some cases helped us make winning bets, through their contributions to the site’s discussion threads during the past year. Who, for you, has been the Poster of…

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Labour’s ICM lead now 5%

Labour’s ICM lead now 5%

The Tories up a point on a fortnight ago It’s multi-Gordons once again this morning but only half the number that accompanied the last poll, YouGov’s 10% lead, and one less than when the pollster, ICM, last carried out a survey two weeks ago. The fieldwork for the firm’s August survey for the Guardian finished four days ago on Thursday so is already a little out of date. It won’t have been affected by the Liverpool shooting which has been…

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What are the politics of the Rhys killing?

What are the politics of the Rhys killing?

Is this putting the Tories back in the game? In an excellent post yesterday my nomination for political blogger of the year, the Labour-leaning Paul Linford, produced a potted history of crimes which, he argued have changed the political consensus. Running through Jamie Bulger in 1993 which arguably gave the then shadow home secretary, Tony Blair, heightened prominence, Linford touches on the political impact of the Dunblane massacre in 1995, the Philip Lawrence murder which is back in the headlines…

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Could smoking be what does for Charles next time?

Could smoking be what does for Charles next time?

Would the train incident thwart any come-back plan? It’s August and yesterday we got what looks like becoming a hardy annual in the run-up to the Lib Dem conference – the Charles Kennedy come-back story. This year’s has been sparked off by his comments yesterday at Scotland’s “Festival of Politics” after he was asked if he was “..going to be the comeback kid?” According to the BBC report he replied: “When you have been the leader of a national political…

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The polling famine is nearly over

The polling famine is nearly over

The Guardian’s August ICM survey should be out this weekend After two weeks without any national voting intention surveys – a period which has seen intense speculation about how the main parties are doing in the new political context – I am advised that we should see results from the Guardian’s August ICM “over the weekend”. That’s likely to mean either tomorrow or on Bank Holiday Monday. The paper’s uninterrupted polling series with ICM is the longest running in the…

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Is YouGov 10% contributing to GB’s referendum trap?

Is YouGov 10% contributing to GB’s referendum trap?

Can the leadership be challenged without Labour paying a price? Aside from the dramatic rise in street violence the issue that’s dominating the political scene is the growing threat of a revolt within the wider Labour movement over GB’s decision not to have a referendum on the EU treaty. There’s a report this morning that at least 40 Labour MPs are calling for talks on the EU plan to be re-opened and a number of unions are gathering forces ahead…

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