Archive for General Election
A tale of two Shadow Chancellors
Two party leaders.
Two manifesto launches.
Two questions asking about financial details.
Two leaders turning to their Shadow Chancellor.
One Shadow Chancellor answers the question straight away.
One Shadow Chancellor, er…, despite having advanced warning is still flipping through the paperwork in front of him when the party leader turns to him and can’t answer the question.
Can you guess which [...]
Liberal Democrat manifesto by numbers
The Liberal Democrat manifesto by numbers:
9 different formats for the manifesto (hard copy, video, on screen, iPhone app etc.)
6 photos of Nick Clegg
5 pages of index
4 pages of detailed costsing
4 steps to a fairer Britain
3 photos of Vince Cable
0 mentions of chocolate
Sarah Teather welcomes people to the launch and then Danny Alexander introduces the manifesto [...]
Liberal Democrat manifesto: advance peek
Tomorrow Nick Clegg is launching the Liberal Democrat manifesto, but tonight The Voice can give you an advance peek at what it will be saying. We’d like to report that this is due to our cunning radio controlled artificial pigeon which we have flown in to the roof of Cowley Street and used to point [...]
Conservative manifesto: the Liberal Democrat reaction
Here’s the party’s line:
The Conservative manifesto is a blueprint for fake change. It is a depressing and dishonest con with a massive spending black hole at its centre, threatening an inevitable hike in VAT.
In the attached document, we detail where the Conservatives have failed to justify their promises, and why they should not be trusted [...]
The other TV election debates
Here are the details of the debates the BBC is hosting between various Cabinet ministers and their shadows from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. All will be on the BBC’s Daily Politics show on BBC2.
Monday 19th April 2:15-3:00
The Foreign Affairs Debate. David Miliband for Labour, William Hague for the Conservatives and Ed Davey for the [...]
Good news on turnout and engagement
Two pieces of cheery news.
First, from the latest Sunday Times/YouGov poll:
I am so disillusioned with politics that I am seriously thinking of not voting at all in the coming general election:
Agree 15%
Disagree 73%
All things considered, 15% is a pretty low figure.
Second, from a survey of 18-25 year olds:
A survey of 18-25 year-olds, commissioned by new [...]
Tactical unwind or tactical rewind?
For a long time after David Cameron’s election to leader of the Conservative Party there was widespread talk of “tactical unwind”, that is how his changes to the Conservative Party may result in much less anti-Tory tactical voting at the next general election. It’s one of the range of reasons that many Tories quote for [...]
How are the party leaders doing on Twitter?
I’ve used Edelman’s Tweetlevel tool for my monthly round-ups of how Liberal Democrat MPs are doing on Twitter, so the figures just outabout how the party leaders are doing as measured by that tool caught my eye.
Some of the headline findings are:
Gordon Brown wins Twitter war by volume
Clegg is the leader with most favourability
Cameron “gets [...]
