Mark Pack

So far, it’s true to say, that despite heavy negative coverage for the Conservative Party day after day about Lord Ashcroft, there hasn’t been much sign of damage to the Conservatives in the opinion polls. In some ways that reflects the degree to which the issue plays to natural political cleavages: is doing everything you can within [...] »

What has slowly been dragged out of the Conservative Party over the last day is that senior figures such as William Hague and David Cameron were kept in the dark over the exact facts of Lord Ashcroft’s financial affairs for many years. Despite seeking reassurances and the like – and answering questions about it in [...] »

Despite some alarms along the way, the rules are now set for the first-ever head-to-head general election debates in the UK a mere 46 years after the first suggestion. (And no, yawn yawn, it isn’t only in the US that such debates take place: the US wasn’t first and the US isn’t a particularly good place [...] »

From today’s Observer: David Cameron’s Tories were accused last night of dog-whistle politics after the Conservative leader appeared on the front of flyers saying the floodgates had been opened to mass immigration. Critics say the flyers are alarmist and misleading because they imply limits could be imposed on entrants from EU countries such as Poland. Last night, [...] »

I pointed out before that the key to getting a boost in support out of TV leader debates isn’t so much winning the debate as beating expectations: if people expected you to do dreadfully and you come out doing ok that’s almost always a boost to a campaign, whilst being seen as doing ok when [...] »

Iain Martin’s general election commentary for the Wall Street Journal is rapidly become a must-read for me due to his record of unearthing useful bits of extra information that shed an extra light on the big political stories. This week he had a good piece on the Conservative Party’s preparation for televised party leader debates during [...] »

The political impact of TV debates in other Parliamentary democracies (and yes, yawn yawn, obligatory American reference, in the US too) has often been more about expectations than about absolute performance. Beat expectations and you benefit from the debate, even if that means people viewed you as the narrow loser. But if you were expected [...] »

Yes, someone said something foolish on Twitter. Yes, he then dug himself into a hole with an explanation that doesn’t stack up. Yes, he shouldn’t have done it. But even for a Twitter-holic like me, you’ve got to wonder quite why this story is garnering so much online chatter in comparison with the news we may [...] »

With due deference to the Conservative Party's keenness to cut inheritance tax but hesitancy on other tax matters: Thanks to mydavidcameron.com for the template, and the site is well worth a visit to see some great other uses of the template.  »

First up, there’s a report from the Hansard Society which has surveyed MPs and their use of the internet (“A study into how MPs use digital media to communicate with their constituents”): It is clear from the survey that the internet has permeated the culture and day-to-day life of our MPs and that many value the [...] »