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Month: March 2016

Local By-Election Preview : March 24th 2016 (Maundy Thursday)

Local By-Election Preview : March 24th 2016 (Maundy Thursday)

Dalton (Con defence) and Moss Bay (Lab defence) on Allerdale Result of council at last election (2015): Labour 29, Conservatives 17, Independents 7, United Kingdom Independence Party 3 (Labour majority of 2) Result of wards at last election (2015) Dalton Conservative 510 (48%), Liberal Democrat 226 (21%), Green Party 168 (16%), United Kingdom Independence Party 153 (15%) Candidates duly nominated: Eric Atkinson (United Kingdom Independence Party), Flic Crowley (Green Party), Marion Fitzgerald (Ind), Ross Hayman (Lab), Mike Johnson (Con) Moss…

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Survation EURef phone poll follows ComRes and has reduced though still clear REMAIN lead

Survation EURef phone poll follows ComRes and has reduced though still clear REMAIN lead

Survation chart showing latest phone poll wit reduced REMAIN lead pic.twitter.com/X9LdJeDkw0 — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) March 24, 2016 LAB get much closer with Ipsos Chart showing full voting intention data from today's @IpsosMORI phone pollLDs in double figures pic.twitter.com/ZLmdqFMl02 — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) March 24, 2016 Corbyn overtakes Cameron in the Ipsos leader ratings Corbyn & Farage big gainers in latest Ipsos satisfaction ratings. Cameron the big loser well behind LAB leader pic.twitter.com/NcmDCs90Mq — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) March 24, 2016

The New Zealand flag referendum goes strongly for the status quo: A pointer for EURef

The New Zealand flag referendum goes strongly for the status quo: A pointer for EURef

Another referendum where the status quo wins. New Zealand votes to keep current flag. Implications for BREXIT? https://t.co/1nrhu8EwYp — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) March 24, 2016 One of the massive challenges for LEAVE is that there’s a strong history in elections from many countries of the status quo prevailing. We saw that in Scotland in September 2014 as well as in the UK EC referendum of 1975. We have also seen it to a very striking degree when voters in English…

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This week’s PB/Polling Matters TV Show on Trump, Brussels, Osborne and that LAB poll lead

This week’s PB/Polling Matters TV Show on Trump, Brussels, Osborne and that LAB poll lead

Serious political conversation for those seriously interested in politics After a week dominated by the tragedy in Brussels the PB/PM TV team look at the political impact of that as well as Trump’s growing haul of delegates, Osborne and that unique polling event – the Labour polling lead. As ever the show is also available as an audio podcast version Mike Smithson Follow @MSmithsonPB Tweet

REMAIN lead drops to lowest level yet in ComRes phone poll for ITV

REMAIN lead drops to lowest level yet in ComRes phone poll for ITV

The ComRes press release states: Remain” leads “Leave” by seven points according to the latest ComRes poll for ITV News (fieldwork conducted over the weekend, before the events in Brussels). The seven point lead is the lowest recorded in a ComRes telephone poll since the General Election, however, it is in line with the eight point lead in the February ComRes / ITV News poll (although another ComRes poll for the Daily Mail had shown the Remain lead rising to…

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Sanders runs Hillary pretty close in latest round of primaries

Sanders runs Hillary pretty close in latest round of primaries

Trump wins one loses one The results from the latest three primaries are almost all in with victories for Clinton and Trump in the biggest, Arizona, and for Cruz and Sanders in Utah. In the very low Democratic caucus in Idaho Sanders came out on top. The Clinton campaign has made it clear that it ways to focus on the coming big battle against Trump rather than the irritating ongoing squabble with Bernie Sanders. Results like this latest batch are…

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With sentiment edging away from REMAIN it’s been the biggest betting day yet on the EURef

With sentiment edging away from REMAIN it’s been the biggest betting day yet on the EURef

REMAIN drops 5 points on the biggest #EURef betting day yet.On Betfair alone £244,108 bets matched in 24 hours pic.twitter.com/vmCM7koRoW — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) March 22, 2016 Whether this has been driven by Brussels or not is unclrear but there’s been a huge, in political betting terms, of betting on the EU Referendum. With nearly £0.25m of bets matched on Betfair alone in 24 hours the this has almost certainly been the biggest day yet for referendum gambling. It seems…

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Assessing the mood amongst Labour pragmatists

Assessing the mood amongst Labour pragmatists

Ex-MP Nick Palmer on a non-Corbynite Labour focus group For friendship and nostalgia, I had a dinner last week with 14 veteran campaigners who have mostly been with me in every campaign since 1997. Coincidentally or not, I think I was the only one at the table who had voted for Jeremy Corbyn. The others are pragmatic Labour campaigners who fight every election to win, and turned a safe Tory seat in 1992 (16% margin) into a perpetual marginal. They’d voted…

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