Search Results for: frank dobson

Andy Burnham’s victory in first Gtr Manchester Mayoral Race should not be regarded as a foregone conclusion

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Manchester Evening News May 19 2016 Former LAB Health Secs have flopped in mayoral races before The biggest election, in terms of the one involving the most number of voters, planned for 2017 is the May contest for the elected Mayor of Greater Manchester. The bookies make ex-LAB health sec and twice failed leadership candidate, Andy Burnham the tight odds on favourite. Ladbrokes have him at 1/6. As well as the City of Manchester itself it covers a huge range…

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London might be a Labour city but it has only won the mayoralty once

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Contenders need to be able to reach out beyond their party bases One of the biggest UK political battles and what will certainly be a big political betting event will be next year’s race for the London will between Zac Goldsmith for the Blues and Sadiq Khan for the Reds. This will be the fifth time there’s been such an elections and so far CON has won two, LAB one and independent one. The latter, of course, was Ken in…

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Mayoral elections are so much more about the popularity of individual candidates than their parties

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The big news today was that Zac Goldsmith was selected as the Conservative candidate to contest the London Mayoral election next May. This was a postal ballot of members of the Conservative Party in London plus others who had been prepared to stump up £1 for a vote. The turnout of 9.277 was a disappointment and compares unfavourably with the votes that Sadiq Khan chalked up in the LAB selection three weeks ago. In fact Zac’s CON mayoral vote of…

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Nighthawks is now open

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Home of the web’s best political conversation Why not relax, and converse into the night on the day’s events in PB Night Hawks. If you’re Hungry Like The Wolf for news on politics and betting, you’ve come to the right place on Planet Earth for political betting. If you’ve always been a lurker, and have The Reflex not to post, Nighthawks gives you an opportunity to delurk, don’t worry, you won’t become Wild Boys or Wild Girls after posting. The…

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Now is the winter of our discontent?

…who shall be the ‘glorious sun of York’? The phrase ‘the Winter of Discontent’ is perhaps now better known to describe the political demise of the Callaghan government and subsequent victory of Margeret Thatcher in 1979 than the misquoted opening line of Shakespeare’s Richard III whence it came. It captured, and still does, a deep misery – the feeling of a spiralling towards catastrophe that media pundits are trying to re-ignite in the face of a global depression, wildcat strikes and what…

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YouGov has Ken just 1% ahead

The Lib Dem’s Paddick is down at just 7% A new poll by YouGov for for ITV’s London Tonight puts Ken on 45 per cent, just one point above Boris with the Lib-Dem candidate Brian Paddick trailing on seven per cent in what looks set to be the biggest domestic battle during 2008. If the Tories managed to unseat Livingston it would be a major political upset and a big set-back for Brown. It will no doubt be recalled that…

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Guest slot on the Irish elections

David Leyshon looks at the parties and issues Fianna Fail – this is the de Valera party founded in the mid twenties. It won its first election in 1928 (I think). It is the party that has been in power most since. Bertie Ahern is FF. They are republican but havn’t supported the IRA in their various military campaigns. In their modern form they are populist and well organised. It has often occurred to me that New Labour has learned…

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YouGov has to be more “transparent”

Commons call for an investigation into the pollsters – now a big test The group of leading Labour MPs that has put down a Commons motion calling for an investigation into opinion polling firms over fears that ‘questionable methodology’ is “skewing the political process and tarnishing the industry’s reputation” will be able to get some empirical information next week on the effectiveness of the internet-based pollster, YouGov. For they will be able to compare YouGov’s predictions on the Elections with…

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