Mark Pack

The lovely phrase “spray on evidence” was coined in the late 1990s in frustration at the attitude towards evidence shown by many in the Labour government. Though officially the government was determinedly set on a course of evidence-based policy, many of those involved in policy making felt that evidence was being applied as a bit [...] »

For the Conservatives it’s the quitting of their next treasurer, David Rowland, whilst for Labour it’s John Prescott warning of the Labour facing bankrupcy (the context for which you can see in these graphs).  »

Over on the Total Politics website they’ve been poking fun at the ‘house party’ instructions issued by the David Miliband campaign. On reading the piece at first I thought it was being a little harsh, because house parties (where you invite electors – Labour members in this case – to a small event to discuss [...] »

The following three graphs are from the Electoral Commission and show income and expenditure for the three main political parties as reflected in their annual accounts. There are some important exceptions to what they show, such as the money brought in and spent directly by election candidates, though from what I know of these exceptions [...] »

Sunder Katwala of the Fabians has a thought-provoking post about the role of Kier Hardie in Labour's current political traditions and attitudes towards working with other parties. Others with more knowledge of Labour history than me will be far better placed to comment on that debate, but what particularly struck me reading it is how [...] »

Many Liberal Democrats become very suspicious when they hear Labour members talk about the need for a broad progressive coalition, suspecting that for many of them the definition of progressive is really "agreeing with Labour". Labour's reaction since the general election has done little to assuage such fears, with a sequence of policies that were [...] »

This quote from Jon Cruddas beautifully sums up much of what went wrong with the Labour government – and the dilemma Labour faces working out what to do next: I’ve known for David Miliband for twenty years, I’ve known Ed Balls for twenty years, but I don’t know what they stand for.  »

The News Shopper reports: Labour parliamentary candidate for Gravesham Kathryn Smith has been arrested on suspicion of drink-driving after crashing her car into a roundabout. The incident reportedly took place in University Way, Dartford, at the junction of Joyce Green Lane, at around 10pm on Monday. It is understood she was breathalysed at the scene and asked to [...] »

The Cambridge News reports: LABOUR’S candidate for South East Cambridgeshire John Cowan has been suspended by his party – after a fresh series of allegations about his conduct. The latest claims about him, in a Sunday newspaper, say he boasted of his sexual exploits in online forums, and advertised for people to pose naked for his photographic [...] »

Iain Dale quite rightly has queried why the prospect of Labour finishing third in the popular share of the vote isn’t a big story being talked about in the media. But actually Iain is too kind to Labour. Because the voting abyss Labour is teetering on the edge of is more than simply coming third. More than [...] »