Picture credit : WWF One of David Cameron’s early and later much-derided moves was to go to the Arctic to be seen hugging a husky: I hope it won’t be seen as partisan to say that few of us felt that Cameron had a deep-seated love of huskies: we were all clear that it was symbolic. He was detoxifying the Tories – not just about harsh efficiency, but caring about the environment too. Ultimately, though, the environment was seen as…
The coalition concessions continue to shape Britain’s politics On May 11th 2010, my birthday as it happens, David Cameron was able to enter Downing Street even though he’d failed to win a majority as a result of the coalition deal with Nick Clegg’s Lib Dems. Two aspects of the Tory concessions required to make that happen are still very much in place – the Fixed-Term Term Parliament Act and the doubling of the number of LD members of the House…
William Hill latest prices Do the betting odds have it right? Witney is a safe Tory seat was made ultra safe by the relatively equal division between Reds and Yellows plus the bonus of having the PM as MP. Last time out Labour thumped Lib Dems in the undercard. In the referendum Remain won 54-46. The constituency can be divided into three rough blocks Witney and Chipping Norton – Con v Lab The fringe of Oxford (Woodstock, Charlbury) Con v…
And the new series starts on Friday with Nick Clegg as host!!! TSE
The former Top Tory Two have left TMay a great legacy There’ve been two major changes to the electoral system that the Tories have brought which have combined together to make the boundary review so favourable to them. The first is the introduction of individual voter registration which has had the effect of seeing that millions of names on the electoral roll had initially been lost. The second is the introduction of equal sized constituencies. The big question was when…
Hard to see anything other than comfortable CON hold Cameron has announced this afternoon that he’s going to follow Tony Blair – the last former successful general election winner to stand down as an MP shortly after stepping down as party leader and PM. So we now have the first Westminster by-election in a CON held seat since the general election. The numbers from May 2015 are above. Although the overall outcome is hardly in doubt it does raise some…
Putting the current ratings numbers into a historical context With a lot of the non-LAB leadership politics discussion being on May’s polling honeymoon I thought I’d look back at the old MORI ratings to see how other new PM’s were doing at this stage in their occupancy of Number 10. To its great credit Ipsos MORI keeps excellent historical records and has a whole section devoted to old polling data. So compiling the above has been easy. Interestingly Mrs. Thatcher…
Picture: The apotheosis of the Tory targeting of the Lib Dems at the last general election. Why Cameron might still be PM if the coalition had continued after May 2015. When David Cameron reflects on his earlier than anticipated departure as Prime Minister I wonder if in hindsight he’ll regret his and Sir Lynton’s Crosby targeting of the Lib Dem held seats at the last general election. At the time the 27 Tory gains from the Lib Dems was hailed…