The end of the honeymoon
Didn't last long did it? http://today.yougov.co.uk/commentaries/peter-kellner/honeymoon-over
posted by Luke Akehurst at 4:46 pm
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
About Me
- Name: Luke Akehurst
- Location: North Durham, County Durham, United Kingdom
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:
Labour are hopeless now in exposing this shambles of a government.
All Cameron and Clegg do now is refer to Labours overspending that's the cause of this austerity facing us all.
When ever massive cuts occur in the NHS or Schools they just say this is the legacy of Labour.
Its true Labour were going to make savage cuts to, but failed to admit it in the election while the Tories made no secret it had to be done.
Labour must fight back and have answers for their overspend and excessive borrowing.
9:49 am, July 21, 2010
What overspend ?
GW
10:04 am, July 21, 2010
I think it's unfair to expect Labour to mount a well articulated critique of the coalition when they are so busy attacking each other. All about priorities...!
12:02 pm, July 21, 2010
There is far more public interest in Labour in-fighting than in the activities of the new government. With a leaderless opposition, back stabbing, Mandelson's book, leadership candidates distancing themselves with indecent haste from the previous administration they once supported and Blair's personal fund raising for the Tony and Cherie lifestyle, don't really think anyone has time to notice whether honeymoons are over or not.
Whatever one's politics we need a credible opposition and, at the moment, all we have is an assortment of personal vanities on display. Someone needs to get a grip.
12:44 pm, July 21, 2010
Wow, some people seem upset that Labour is having a leadership contest......
i wouldn't mind so much, but for the absolute certainty that many of the VERY SAME PEOPLE will have ranted and raged when Brown had his "coronation"
As for Mandy's book - nobody, and I mean nobody, outside the self-satisfied incestuous Westminster "bubble" is at all interested. Quite right too.
Labour will be ahead of the Tories in the polls by the end of the year, with the LibDems around 10%, if they're lucky. Remember where you read it first ;-)
12:43 am, July 22, 2010
12:43 Am Where do you get this strange notion that nobody outside the Westminster bubble is interested in Mandy's book? Serialised in the national press and one can hardly turn on the TV without seeing his sickly smile in some chat programme or another. Evidently the circulation and ratings obsessed media think it is the current popular topic and they don't usually get it wrong being profit driven.
No, it may suit you in your dreams to think Mandy and the inner Labour group squabbles don't matter. but the sooner someone emerges as a firm and capable leader the better for the Labour party and the parliamentary process.
On your forecast for Lib/Dem poll standings, this is not born out by local elections results, since the coalition creation, in which they have gained 3%.
From a personal preference I would favour a straight fight between Labour and Conservative but, sadly, it ain't gonna happen! Indeed, a safer prediction is that in the shorter term support for the smaller parties will grow as public dispair of the main players increases.
8:40 am, July 22, 2010
Erm Bluenote, the press and media are PART OF the "bubble" I referred to. They get their commercial judgements wrong quite frequently, in fact.
Even many political anoraks find Mandy's memoirs boring, and telling us nothing that we didn't know already. As for the general public, I have seen people reading the Times/ST and instantly turning over the relevant pages - they are simply not interested.
As for your other points - the latest poll puts the LibDems as low as 13%, this is of rather more relevance than your strange cherry picked local election "statistic". Despite being leaderless and currently directionless, Labour's ratings are up to the mid 30s - as against under 30% at the GE.
My predictions don't seem so much "wishful thinking" given that, do they now?? ;-)
8:42 pm, July 22, 2010
8.42PM, using opinion polls is as much 'cherry picking' as taking local election results. Indeed, over on Mark Nottingham's blog he uses the same local election results I referred to and heralds them as a sign of Labour revival.
To be honest, who really knows. Opinion polls month before the last election would have indicated a Tory landslide but it didn't happen and the great Liberal surge during the campaign ended in fewer seats than before. It is a funny old business trying to forecast voting behaviour but I wouldn't mind betting the Labour leadership choice will have an impact.
You could be right in your prediction but only time and the effect of lots of, as yet unknown, factors will tell. Certainly I would not stake my life savings (such as Gordon left me) on it.
8:27 am, July 23, 2010
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