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Month: April 2007

Is something big about to break?

Is something big about to break?

My voice-mail from the Mole I’ve just picked up a voice-mail message that was left on my mobile by a Scottish sounding man earlier this evening. He said he was “The Mole” of The First Post fame. This is the full text of the message that was left: “Mike you wont me know but I think you read my column – I write the Mole in the First Post. I’m just phoning you to give you heads up that you…

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French Presidential Election 2007 1st Round Competition

French Presidential Election 2007 1st Round Competition

Win this biography of Sego provided by Politcos For each of the candidates listed, predict their percentage share of the vote in the first round of the French Presidential election. Make your predictions to up to one decimal place. François Bayrou (UDF) Jean-Marie Le Pen (FN) Ségolène Royal (PS) Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP) Your score for each candidate will be the absolute difference between your prediction and their actual result, and your overall score will be the sum of your four…

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France – now it gets really dirty

France – now it gets really dirty

Can Le Pen eat into the rightist vote? The above story shows what could be the final attack by the far-right Le Pen and on Nicolas Sarkozy as France prepares for the first round of voting on Sunday. For if the FN leader is to do as well as he did last time and get into the final run off he has to take votes from the front-runner who continues to hold up reasonably well in the polls. This is…

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Why are the Tories and LDs in such a mess over the mayor?

Why are the Tories and LDs in such a mess over the mayor?

Can either party get anybody to take on Ken? Tonight’s extraordinary story about the joint Lib Dem and Tory approach to Greg Dyke to run against Ken Livingstone for the London mayoralty shows what a mess the two main opposition parties have got over next year’s London Mayoral elections. For both of them have had real problems finding decent candidates who are prepared to give up maybe 10 months for a prolonged campaign up to May next year. Nobody of…

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“The Political Punter” – now launched

“The Political Punter” – now launched

The book that came out of the blog What the publishers, Harriman House, are describing as the “first book on political betting” was published yesterday and a number of site users have already received their copies. Those who were at the party were able to buy it at a special rate and by clicking the picture above a good deal is available. If this is a success then it’s possible that there could be an annual publication with updates and…

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Sarkozy and Royal going to the wire

Sarkozy and Royal going to the wire

New poll has her neck and neck with Sarkozy With just four days to go before the French Presidential election a new poll has Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal and Right-wing front runner Nicolas Sarkozy both on 50% should the two of the make the run off of the top two candidates. Sarkozy, however, is still in the lead for the first round of voting. The pollster, CSA, has been giving slightly better figures for the Socialist candidate than the other…

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Punters flock to Brown after Miliiband comments

Punters flock to Brown after Miliiband comments

The price movement says it all. Now that David Miliband appears to have ruled himself out the prospect of Brown taking the leadership and becoming Prime Minister without a serious challenge looks even more likely tonight. The latest (2300) price is 0.15/1. Mike Smithson

Populus puts Labour at its lowest ever level

Populus puts Labour at its lowest ever level

But are the Labour succession details being held over? The Times Populus survey for April is out this morning and shows that Labour is at its lowest ever level with the pollster. The only consolation for Blair-Brown is that the deficit behind the Tories has remained the same. The headline figures are with comparisons on last month: CON 37%(-1): LAB 29%(-1): LD 20% (+2). There’s no sign in the report of responses to the named leader question – how people…

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