Hoorah for @BevaniteEllie!
I couldn’t really let this one pass.
The Daily Mail have run a hatchet job on Bevanite Ellie!
How exciting, you know you’ve made it when the lowest scum in the land take a disliking to you. Must be doing something right.
PS Have you ever noticed that Guido Fawkes‘ site looks a lot like the Daily Mail these days? Guido Fawkes, enforcer of centralism and enemy of dissenting thoughts… Oh no wait, defender of freedom, isn’t it?
PSS Seriously? Larah? Were the sub editors too flecked with spittle and blinded by the up skirt to reread their captions?
PPPS Honestly, look at your keyboard. L and S are miles apart. It took someone trying really hard to fuck this one up.
Sunny adds:
That Tory bloggers jumped on the story once CCHQ researchers dug up the story was rather predictable. But it’s always amusing to watch the stupidity in action.
Here is Harry Cole, who was used by the Daily Mail to put the boot in:
So why the sudden change of tune, has someone realised she could carve a little career out as rat staying on the sinking ship?
Talking of rats reminded of me of this story a few years back:
In a statement released on Saturday, Mr Cole apologised for misleading voters, admitting to “having influence on its direction” and that some may see it “as a campaign tool.” In the statement, he claimed to have worked with the people behind EUSAless “in the past,” however, after being presented with claims by The Journal, he admitted that current members of his campaign team were writing the blog.
On more than one occasion, EUSAless has attempted to appear independent of the Harry Cole campaign. In an entry dated 12 December 2007, it denies suggestions that Mr Cole was involved with the blog, while another post, dated 5 February 2008, attempts to imply that Mr Sloan also had no involvement.
Can’t wait for the day Cole appears alongside Cameron. How’s that campaign to support Adeela Shafiq going? Has she thanked you for all that money yet?
And lastly, does Guido Fawkes have permission to use the protected pictures from Facebook on his blog? I suspect not.
Why does Labour mix good ideas with bad?
Labour’s new policy on the jobs guarantee in their manifesto is worth looking at, as it symbolises many of the strengths and weaknesses of their overall approach:
No young person in Britain should be long-term unemployed: those out of work for six months or more will be guaranteed employment or training through the £1 billion Future Jobs Fund, with mandatory participation after ten months. The fund will support 200,000 jobs. All those who are long-term unemployed for two years will be guaranteed a job placement, which they will be required to take up or have their benefits cut
There is a sensible, left wing idea here, building on what has already worked well. continue reading… »
Tory lead falls to 6pts in latest poll – updated
The Guardian reports the latest results from their ICM poll today:
Although David Cameron is judged to have the best policies on tax after a week dominated by his party’s national insurance plans, that perception does not appear to be translating into votes, with support for the Tories is as low as at any point in the last two years
Earlier today a YouGov poll just for London showed the Conservatives 3-points ahead too at 38%, Labour at 35% and Libdems at 16%.
But this should not be taken as indicative of the entire country, since the swing to the Tories here has been significant enough for them to win 12 seats, as the Standard reports.
UK Polling report explains more about that poll:
It is a significant narrowing of the Conservative lead in London since their last poll, though this one is a lot more in line with other YouGov polling. YouGov’s previous London poll showed a towering 8 point swing, whereas this one shows 5 point swing, much closer to what YouGov’s national polls are showing. On these figures, London seems to be behaving in a pretty similar fashion to the rest of the country.
The daily YouGov national tracker poll is also expected tonight around 10pm.
Update, here’s results from today’s YouGov poll:
Conservative 39%
Labour 33%
Liberal Democrat 20%
Others 8%
—–
Here are some things the Labour is promising it will do if it wins the coming election. In each case do your think they will keep or break their promise if it remains in government?
Not raise income tax rates
Keep its promise: 27%
Break its promise: 55%
Don’t know: 18%
Reduce pensioners’ heating bills by an average of £100 a year
Keep its promise: 42%
Break its promise: 32%
Don’t know: 25%
Allow the people who run successful schools and hospitals to take over and run failing schools and hospitals
Keep its promise: 39%
Break its promise: 31%
Don’t know: 30%
Stop immigrants with poor English taking public sector jobs
Keep its promise: 18%
Break its promise: 60%
Don’t know: 22%
Make it easier to sack failing police chiefs
Keep its promise: 24%
Break its promise: 40%
Don’t know: 36%
Do you approve or disapprove of the Government’s record to date?
Approve: 24%
Disapprove: 61%
Don’t know: 15%
Which of these would make the best Prime Minister?
David Cameron: 31%
Gordon Brown: 26%
Nick Clegg: 12%
Don’t know: 30%
Which party do you think is more likely to run Britain’s economy well – the Conservatives or the Labour Party?
Conservatives: 36%
Labour: 31%
Neither: 23%
Don’t know: 10%
Here is a list of problems facing the country. Could you say for each of them which political party you think would handle the problem best?
NHS
Conservatives: 33%
Labour: 28%
Liberal Democrats: 13%
Other: 2%
None: 9%
Don’t know: 15%
Asylum and immigration
Conservatives: 39%
Labour: 17%
Liberal Democrats: 12%
Other: 7%
None: 10%
Don’t know: 15%
Law and order
Conservatives: 39%
Labour: 23%
Liberal Democrats: 10%
Other: 3%
None: 8%
Don’t know: 17%
Education and schools
Conservatives: 29%
Labour: 28%
Liberal Democrats: 17%
Other: 3%
None: 8%
Don’t know: 15%
Taxation
Conservatives: 31%
Labour: 24%
Liberal Democrats: 19%
Other: 3%
None: 10%
Don’t know: 15%
Unemployment
Conservatives: 27%
Labour: 27%
Liberal Democrats: 12%
Other: 3%
None: 11%
Don’t know: 19%
Thinking about Prime Minister Gordon Brown, which of the following qualities do you think he has?
Sticks to what he believes in: 36%
Strong: 22%
Honest: 22%
Good in a crisis: 20%
In touch with the concerns of ordinary people: 18%
Decisive: 15%
A natural leader: 4%
Charismatic: 2%
None of these: 44%
Don’t know: 6%
Thinking about Conservative leader David Cameron, which of the following qualities do you think he has?
Charismatic: 42%
A natural leader: 25%
Decisive: 22%
Strong: 21%
Sticks to what he believes in: 18%
Honest: 18%
In touch with the concerns of ordinary people: 17%
Good in a crisis: 9%
None of these: 29%
Don’t know: 12%
Thinking about Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, which of the following qualities do you think he has?
Honest: 30%
In touch with the concerns of ordinary people: 26%
Sticks to what he believes in: 21%
Charismatic: 17%
Decisive: 12%
Strong: 9%
A natural leader: 7%
Good in a crisis: 4%
None of these: 20%
Don’t know: 34%
Sorry Libdems, Labour has made taxes fairer
Nobody could seriously argue with the Institute of Fiscal Studies on the distributional impact of Labour 1997-2010, in showing that Labour’s changes to the tax and benefits system have been strongly progressive.
So how does Nick Clegg stand the IFS analysis on its head to claim the opposite this morning? He claims to have “damning evidence that after 13 years they have failed to deliver fair taxes. Despite everything they said in 1997, life has got harder for people at the bottom and easier for people at the top”.
It would appear that he does so by excluding tax credits from his tax analysis, which enables him to turn the IFS’ comprehensive analysis upside down.
But I was surprised that The Guardian reported the Clegg claim at face value, without noting either the Institute of Fiscal Studies analysis or the tax credits point.
continue reading… »
Labour’s cancer leaflets – yet another Tory statistics fail
By a happy coincidence, I was already some way into researching Andrew Lansley’s spurious claim that ‘broken government promises’ were denying thousands of cancer patients access to life-extending drugs when the latest ridiculous claim, that Labour have specifically targeted women who have had breast cancer with new leaflet broke.
According to the BBC’s report, Lansley also got in on the faux outrage act:
Earlier, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said he had written to Gordon Brown to ask him to confirm that no confidential information had been used to select the recipients. He said the leaflets raised “a number of serious questions about who authorised the potential misuse of personal data and who was involved in the production of the cards”.
And even Vince Cable, who one would have thought would know better, managed to join in and make rather a fool of himself in the process. While it would, indeed, be rather disreputable for any party to knowingly target cancer patients with a leaflet of this kind, that’s not what’s happened here.
continue reading… »
Why the Left cannot abandon New Labour
There was a brief moment late last year when the Labour Party was so low in the polls that they were tied to the Libdems in polling. Nick Clegg was ecstatic and started saying that it was “the Liberal moment” and the party had become the official progressive opposition. Labour members were in the doldrums.
But as the Conservatives started becoming more explicit about their policies and ideas, voters moved away. Not towards the Libdems however – it is Labour that has almost entirely been the beneficiary of tightening polls.
In other words the core Libdem base has not expanded and remains at around 15% plus some swing voters. There’s little point saying that if more people on blogs advocated voting Libdem then a shift would take place. It won’t. The impact on voting patterns by bloggers is next to nil.
In contrast, the Labour base remains deeper and stronger, vast swathes of the country still see it as the natural opposition to the Tories.
This is remarkable given:
continue reading… »
Labour’s cuts? Tory Lies
This leaflet (via Twitter) was brought to my attention by Girl with a One Track Mind.
If I were to write for the Daily Mail I’d call it DISGUSTING or DISGRACEFUL or REUGHEEAHGHHH.
As I’m a blogger I’m not going to do that – except by proxy – as I’d much rather point out why it is wrong.
First of all I think its fairly obvious that a picture of a blood stained machete is totally inappropriate for pretty much any leaflet, except of course one which concerns machetes.
Secondly comparing public service cuts with a violent and bloody death is at the very least distasteful and and does not reflect well on the sense of perspective of candidate Andrew Charalambous.
Most importantly, the 44% statistic is complete nonsense.
continue reading… »
Half of voters want Libdems in minority govt
Just under half of all voters polled would prefer a Labour or a Conservative government working with the support of the Libdems in a Hung Parliament.
The results, out today in a Comres Poll, show that 46% of voters would prefer a Hung Parliament over just a Tory or a Labour victory.
Conservative government with an overall majority: 29%
Conservative government with the support of the Liberal Democrats in a hung parliament: 20%
Labour government with the support of the Liberal Democrats in a hung parliament: 26%
Labour government with an overall majority: 25%
But the Comres poll also shows the Libdems at their lowest recent showing at 16pts. Labour is 7pts behind Conservatives at 32pts.
The poll also shows that Osborne is rated behind Alastair Darling and Vince Cable as Chancellor. Although there is still plenty of votes for either of them to pick up.
Which of these do you think would make the best Chancellor of the Exchequer?
Alistair Darling 23%
George Osborne 19%
Vince Cable 21%
Don’t know/none 37%
David Cameron also seems to have made no progress persuading voters that his party is “ready for government”.
Neither Labour nor the Conservatives are being honest about how they would reduce public borrowing
Agree 63%
Disagree 27%The Conservative Party is not yet ready for government
Agree 44% (45% in June 2009)
Disagree 44% (46% in June 2009)A Labour government would be more likely than a Conservative Government to increase taxes
Agree 54%
Disagree 30%
The Tories want to interfere at home, but not with business
Spot the key difference in these recent Tory election announcements and policy directions, which have been coming thick and fast since the election really got going…
Group A
4) Not too fussed about the digital economy bill (only 9 Tories turned up to vote)
It’s not your feelings, it’s what you do about them
Septicisle’s post on Linda Bowman has been given a fair amount of flak from all sides. This is usually a sign that a piece is absolutely correct, and this time is no exception.
Ignoring the far-right hangers and floggers who believe Ms Bowman’s views are a well-needed dose of common sense (rather than, say, a scary combination of 12th century barbarism with Orwellian database fetishism), the main objection to the piece seems to be that she has suffered an appalling tragedy and therefore shouldn’t be slated, mocked or otherwise criticised.
This seems misplaced.
continue reading… »
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» The real agenda behind Telegraph’s abortion investigation
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