A poll for The Observer by Ipsos-MORI shows Labour 7% ahead. A week ago the same pollster gave Labour an 8% advantage. Although the headline deficit is better than other recent surveys, the underlying numbers remain worrying for the Conservatives. When it comes to handling a crisis Brown has a 60% to 13% advantage over […]
The above poster (click to enlarge) will be launched later today by Conservative Way Forward. It aims to highlight "the number of deaths of servicemen that might have been avoided had they been properly equipped by theGovernment". Defence spending as a proportion of GDP has fallen from 2.9% in 1996 to 2.4% today. Mark Allatt, […]
Greetings from Blackpool! Horrible journey via train but I’m here in the Imperial Hotel. Surrounded by ‘It’s time for change’ slogans on a black background. The photo on the right is of a beermat circulating around the Imperial Hotel: Gordon Brown – Disturbingly Expensive. The Press Association is reporting that the party will promise to […]
Go to TaxManGordon.com to play this CCHQ-commissioned version of the classic video game Pacman. Instead of evading multi-coloured monsters you have to avoid the Gordon Browns being churned out of No.10, and the 111 stealth tax rises he brings with him: "With the longest tax code in the world, try as you might you’ll never […]
A ConservativeHome.com survey of grassroots members provides plenty of advice for the Tory leadership as the party gathers in Blackpool: Grassroots members would like to see a manifesto that reduces taxation, increases prison places, increases funding for the armed forces, scraps ID cards and delivers English votes for English laws. Members disagree with Tory promises […]
A Populus poll for The Times gives Labour a 10% lead – nearly matching the YouGov survey for today’s Telegraph. I’m sure that Labour does have a real lead but opinion polls taken during party conference season can mislead. Last year in the weekend between the Tory and Labour conferences the main parties were both […]
Yesterday evening we highlighted James Purnell’s fake photo drama. ConservativeHome readers have found some more fake photos overnight…
Nick Vaughan, a former Chairman of Conservative Future currently working for public affairs firm FD-LLM, overviews the challenges at conference. David Cameron’s Conservatives return to Blackpool distracted with speculation of an impending General Election coupled with Labour taking a surge in the polls – with thanks to what many political commentators have deemed as Brown’s […]
According to another YouGov poll – for tomorrow’s Telegraph – Gordon Brown is maintaining the 11% lead that he won in the immediate afterglow of his speech to Labour Conference. Both major parties lose 1% to the LibDems compared to the YouGov/ Channel 4 survey. Here are the other main poll findings: 45% say that […]
Jeremy Hunt MP has described the position of his opposite number – James Purnell, the Culture Secretary – as "increasingly untenable" after it was revealed that he had agreed to have his image added to a photo of a hospital opening – to which he was late. The fake image can be viewed on the […]
That is what the TaxPayers’ Alliance is reporting on its blog. Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TPA, greeted the leaked news with excitement: “Taxpayers across Britain will now look at David Cameron’s Conservatives in a different light following this announcement. Finally, voters can choose a party which will abolish this iniquitous tax. This is […]
A little earlier I posted a few thoughts on ‘next steps for modernisation’. I urged the party to keep emphasising its commitment to the public services; adopt a more achievable environmentalism; embrace the social and international justice reports of IDS and Peter Lilley; defend the rights of adult gay people; recruit genuinely diverse candidates; and […]
Later this afternoon I’ll post on ‘next steps for the core vote issues’ but here are a few thoughts on what, not particularly accurately, could be described as ‘moderniser or change issues’. Although I’m very glad to see the party ‘rebalancing’ it is important that the party does not retreat into the core vote territory […]
I’ve just attended an off-camera briefing at CCHQ (the Pankhurst Room) about the Party Conference. Here are the main points: Accreditation: All passes (except very late applications) have been cleared by the Lancashire Constabulary. Phew. More than 8,500 passes have been issued – the best attendance for five years. Slogan: "It’s time for change" is […]
Andrew Selous, Shadow Minister for Family Welfare and Child Support, looks at ways that the costs of social breakdown can be assuaged by pro-family policies. In my local press I have written recently about the social breakdown that lead over the summer to the horrific murders of four year old Leticia Wright by her mother […]