Remember how last year the Communication Workers Union threatened to withdraw its £1 million contribution to Labour unless the Government dropped plans to part-privatise the Royal Mail? Lo and behold, as the BBC's Robert Peston has spotted, the measure has been dropped from Labour's manifesto, as page six of chapter two states: "The Royal Mail […]
Gordon Brown has just launched Labour's 2010 election manifesto at Birmingham's about-to-be-opened new Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. But how does this fit in with the official Cabinet Office guidelines about holding election events on NHS premises, which state: "1. Neither Ministers, nor any other Parliamentary candidates, should involve Government establishments or offices (such as […]
Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate for Richmond Park, has exposed on his website an attempt by the local Liberal Democrats to infiltrate his campaign: Dan Falchikov — the same Lib Dem activist who was famously overheard by Kevin Maguire, the Daily Mirror’s chief political polemicist, boasting that he had cooked up Susan Kramer’s Kingston Hospital […]
The papers this morning suggest that the Labour manifesto being unveiled today is Blairite in its nature, and very much targeted at the Middle England voters who deserted the Tories in 1997 and helped deliver three Labour election victories for Tony Blair. The Independent suggests that Labour would adopt a Blairite "reforming zeal" on the […]
Earlier in the week the Liberal Democrats launched a poster, warning of a VAT bombshell if the Conservatives won. Cross-examined by BBC1's Politics Show today the Liberal Democrats' Treasury spokesman admitted that the idea of a £389 bombshell was conjecture and conceded that he couldn't rule out a hike in VAT. Transcript below. JON SOPEL: […]
Labour leaflets are waging class war against Cameron because of his university days. They are dishonestly scaring pensioners with lies about Tory intentions on the Winter Fuel Allowance. They have lied about Tory intentions on the NHS in direct mail. Today, from The Sunday Times, they've reached a new low. Targeting people at high risk […]
I think the double-sided leaflet from Gordon Prentice speaks for itself. Click on the image to enlarge and give here to the Tory PPC Andrew Stephenson's campaign.
Brown's first Parliamentary outing took place in 1979. He lost Edinburgh South to Michael Ancram by about two and a half thousand votes. Although the seat was always close-fought, it had stayed Conservative even during Labour's 1966 landslide. Brown would have known when selected that, after four years of Labour Government, it would most likely […]
We have already covered this morning the assertion from Transport Secretary Lord Adonis that Labour and the Lib Dems are natural allies. And it would seem that there are even more senior members of the Cabinet who are urging tactical voting against the Conservatives – in other words suggesting that Labour-inclinced voters should back the […]
The Labour candidate for Moray in Scotland, Stuart Maclennan, is facing calls to resign today after details of the messages he has shared with the world on Twitter emerged. Maclennan works for Labour at the Scottish Parliament and is Secretary of Scottish Young Labour, and his Twitter account has swiftly been taken down. But this […]
Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis was once actively courted by the Conservatives because of his commitment to education reform but the former Liberal Democrat uses a column for The Independent to woo LibDem voters and to argue that Labour and the Liberal Democrats are natural allies… Throughout history Labour and the Liberals have been natural allies: […]
The influence on the Labour Party of the trade union Unite – responsible for the BA cabin crew strikes – is well-documented. See this previous LeftWatch post, for example, to recall how many Unite-backed candidates have been selected for seats in return for millions of pounds of donations to Labour. And it has now emerged […]
Jason Beattie of The Mirror has started a blog and I think it's going to be essential reading. His latest blog focuses on what looks like an unhappy relationship between Nick Clegg and Vince Cable. Jason reports: "Mrs Clegg, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, has been texting her Spanish amigos with gripes about Vince Cable. Apparently, Mrs […]
Nick Clegg claimed a couple of days ago that the general election is not a two-horse race. As the BBC reports, he said: "This isn't the old politics of a two-horse race between Labour and the Conservative Party." For anyone familiar with Liberal Democrat election literature in their target seats, this claim from their leader […]
We are led to believe that Gordon Brown wants to meet real people during the campaign, but the latest evidence suggests that this is in no way the case. The footage is not yet available online (and as soon as it is I will post it here) but leaving an event in London this afternoon, […]