A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.
More steady progress for Labour in the YouGov poll today. Con 42%(-1), Lab 34%(+1), LD 14%(nc). This is very nearly hung parliament territory - actually translates to a Tory majority of six.
posted by Luke Akehurst at 9:23 am
Labour MP for North Durham since 2024. Labour Party activist since 1988 - firmly on the moderate wing of the party. Member of Labour’s NEC 2010-2012 and since 2020. National Secretary of Labour Students 1995-6. Parliamentary candidate for Aldershot (2001) and Castle Point (2005). Hackney Councillor (Chatham Ward) 2002-2014, Labour Group Chief Whip 2002-09, Chair of Health Scrutiny 2010-2014. Dad. Unite and GMB union member. All views expressed in a personal capacity. The rest will become evident from reading the blog.
8 Comments:
Bear in mind that the Conservatives are still at 40% even though Labour have enjoyed their best publicity in well over a year.
9:47 am, October 20, 2008
Given that the incumbent party tends to pick up 3-5 points from the main opposition in the run-up to a general election, this suggests my cash riding on a fourth term remains pretty safe.
With this sort of national poll and the council election results you regularly publish showing no great revival for the Tories, we're in classic mid-term conditions.
But eighteen (or even six) months is a long time in politics...
10:07 am, October 20, 2008
Well, if you ditch a few more policies.
Immigration, 42-day detention, Sats, metric monstering ... and that's just in the past week.
Make hay while the economy falls apart over the the next couple of years.
"I didn't say I'd ended boom and bust. I said it was the end of Tory boom and bust".
He drops turds. You ask for more. I can see why you're in PR.
12:47 pm, October 20, 2008
Cameron's worst nightmare has come true - capitalism is finished. Where do he and the Tory Party go from here, apart from the history books? He can always go back to being a P.R. man for a telly company.
2:56 pm, October 20, 2008
What is interesting is that this crisis whould be good for Labour, we are the party of state intervention for god sake. How the Tories can profit in the ballot box from the banks negligance is beyond me. What Labour must do now is stress our belief in intervention and the Tories fear of regulation and popluar control. Let's start laying down some dividing lines.
3:55 pm, October 20, 2008
ICM poll in the Guardian has the Tories unchanged with a 12% lead.
Also arnold, capitalism is only finished in the same way that extremists in 1933 thought that the democratic system in Germany was finished after the election of Hitler in 1933. Democracy came back stronger.
10:34 pm, October 20, 2008
Thank god for commentary on polls - where would political discourse be without it. Instead we could focus on how:
1) Brown made the BoE independent and removed their powers to intervene to sort out Banks in difficulty by giving it to his brain child the FSA without clear remit
2) By borrowing now, we ransom the futures of the country at a time when public debt equates to £75,000 per house and when individuals carry substantially more in private debt.
3) The sheer volumes of money pumped into the system are going to cause sharp deflationary pressures at the end of this year and start of next. This is good for prices, but when people are being laid off, who's going to have the opportunity to enjoy the respite?
4) Arnold - capitalism hasn't finished. I'm sorry but that is idiotic. To say "the era of free-market's is over" is ridiculous. To try and blame the Tories over this mess for 'deregulation' is absurd. Nu-Lab has been steering the ship for the last 11 years and was perfectly happy taking the tax receipts from the City in the boom years and now their move's to curtail the City smacks of popularism and is short-sighted.
5) If the last 100 years have taught us anything, it's that capital breaks down social barriers. Barriers to entry, legislation etc may give the impression of 'controlling' the market. All you do is distort it.
6) Credit is made available by who? The Treasury and the BoE. This crisis is the Govt.'s fault and while it is heartening for Nu-Lab supporters to see the Tory lead cut, in times of crisis the country rallies round the leader. In calmer times, they seek the blood. Next year, the Govt. will be playing defence with the recession and it is then, that the polls will lengthen again - they won't be blaming the opposition...they'll be blaming the last 11 years of frivolous public service expenditure and asking - "where did all the money go?!"
10:53 am, October 21, 2008
To be honest I'm warming back to Labour, not because of what Labour are doing but because of some of the poor things the conservatives are suggesting.
The whole point of being in opposition is that you offer something different. So far I can't tell the difference between Labour or Tory apart from the tories want to relax Labour laws even further. As a working class man I won't vote for more erosion of workers rights and that is simple.
Labour do need to get behind its working classes and start spending in the midlands and in the North. We need work quick otherwise this whole region is going to sink.
11:26 pm, October 21, 2008
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