Posts Tagged “featured”
Opinion polls yadda yadda. OR “Does Nate Silver mean nothing to you? Did he write in vain?”
by Stephen Tall on May 21, 2013
Two new polls last night: the daily YouGov tracker and the first post-local elections poll from Survation. The spread is interesting: Labour: 35% (Survation 39% (YouGov) Conservatives: 24% (S), 31% (YG) Lib Dems: 11% (S), 10% (YG) Ukip: 22% (S), 14% (YG) As Anthony Wells points out, Survation asks whether people will vote Ukip (most [...]
Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader: “Of course the EU has to change”
by Stephen Tall on May 19, 2013
No prizes for guessing which subject Nick Clegg tackles in his latest weekly letter to supporters: Europe. He rattles through the three positions: ‘calamitous outers’, ‘inconsequential renegotiators’ and ‘achievable reformers’. No prizes for guessing which he identifies with the Lib Dems. Over to Nick… I’m writing this week’s Letter to you from Kirkwall in Orkney. [...]
“They’re all mad, swivel-eyed loons”: a top Tory on the Tories
by Stephen Tall on May 18, 2013
Here’s the remark attributed to ‘a member of the Prime Minister’s inner circle’ according to the Telegraph: “There’s really no problem,” the Conservative figure said about the parliamentary turmoil. “The MPs just have to do it because the associations tell them to, and the associations are all mad swivel-eyed loons.” There is an obvious point [...]
That EU vote: 6 thoughts on what it means for the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour
by Stephen Tall on May 16, 2013
116 Tory MPs last night backed an amendment to the Queen’s Speech and called for an EU referendum bill. Here’s six thoughts from me on what it all means… This wasn’t about Europe (much): this was about Cameron’s leadership The Tory outers/Eurosceptics had already won: David Cameron capitulated in January, conceding an in/out referendum he’d [...]
Lib Dem attitudes to poverty and welfare: 3 interesting findings from today’s Joseph Rowntree Foundation report
by Stephen Tall on May 14, 2013
Three interesting findings from today’s report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) — Public attitudes to poverty and welfare 1983-2011 — carried out by NatCen Social Research, exploring public attitudes to poverty and welfare over the past three decades. 1) Interestingly… Lib Dem supporters are less likely than Labour supporters to believe that people live [...]
Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader: “Lib Dems remain focused on the things people really care about”
by Stephen Tall on May 12, 2013
Nick Clegg isn’t one for the pomp and pageant of parliament (he’s rather keen to let you know). He’s also keen to let you know that this week’s Queen’s Speech was “designed to build a stronger economy and a fairer society in Britain, enabling everyone to get on in life” (to quote Her Majesty). Over [...]
A Tory-Ukip pact? Up to you, guys. But you do know there’s an easier way, right?
by Stephen Tall on May 6, 2013
Ukip’s spectacular showing at last week’s local elections has got the Tories spooked. The full realisation is sinking in that this may not be a one-off eruption of popular protest. Nigel Farage’s band of modern-life-is-rubbish disciples will likely top next year’s Euro polls. Such momentum may propel them towards a double-digit general election performance in [...]
What the 2013 local elections mean – for the Lib Dems and the next election (and beyond)
by Stephen Tall on May 3, 2013
Well, it could have been worse. The BBC calculates that the Lib Dems have finished these local elections with the loss of a net 124 councillors, slightly better than the projected loss of 130 according to the Rallings and Thrasher model I said the results could best be judged by. The Tories have done slightly [...]
South Shields by-election: Labour hold solid, Ukip surge, Tories fall and Lib Dems… plummet to 7th. Ouch.
by Stephen Tall on May 3, 2013
The South Shields by-election — triggered by David Miliband’s exit from British political life — has resulted in a solid hold for Labour, which polled just over half the vote, only fractionally down on its 2010 position. But it’s Ukip which has most to celebrate: in a seat they haven’t contested since 2001, they stormed [...]
While David Cameron and Owen Jones unite in favour of universal benefits, I want us to get explicit about why redistribution matters to society
by Stephen Tall on April 30, 2013
It’s an odd coalition: left-wing commentator Owen Jones and Tory leader David Cameron united as one. Yet that unlikely alliance was formed yesterday, as both defended universal benefits for wealthy pensioners and both fought shy of asserting the importance of redistribution. David Cameron’s defence was in response to Iain Duncan Smith’s rather odd suggestion that [...]
