Gary Gibbon
Bit coals to Newcastle this it might seem! Fair Votes Now campaigners are besieging the Lib Dem meeting in Transport House. I didn’t think it could get more bizarre after the arrivals had to criss-cross Morris Dancers on the way in. But amongst the demonstrators, which includes Greens, Marxists and others – found Lib Dems…
Gary Gibbon
More strange framing from the worst photographer in the universe but I thought it poignant that the Lib Dems are holding their internal talks on power-sharing in Transport House, long the home of the Labour party which the Lib Dems were hoping to displace in this election.
Jon Snow
Perhaps I was right first time round – this did prove to be thus far the “none of the above” election. At 2.30 am that’s what it looks like with 112 seats declared. The XFactor – Nick Clegg – denied a great electoral romp. Labour heavily swung against, losing seats but not as many as…
Jon Snow
Mmm hung say the exit polls – read my Snowblog re the Year of The Broken Swing. I am deluded enough to believe that this is the year of the seat by seat election – conventional polling, conventional swings won’t obey the rules.
Gary Gibbon
Can Gordon Brown get the sort of late surge he needs? What are the precedents? Folk sometimes talk about a late surge in 1992 that saved John Major but the text books tell us that was actually more of a case of the polls misreading things throughout the election. February 1970 does seem to have…
Jon Snow
I came to after my post-debate reverie on the 17th floor of the Radisson Hotel in Birmingham at 6:05am to the dulcet tones of Evan Davis and the Today Programme. Had a bath, caught the 6:30am to Euston. One scrambled egg and salmon and a black coffee later I arrived having been online throughout the…
Gary Gibbon
Interesting tactics from the Tories – vote Lib Dem get the IMF was the message from Ken Clarke and George Osborne at their London press conference just now. In a word association would you say that reeks of “old politics” or “change?” As one shadow cabinet member put it to me, if the message from…
Gary Gibbon
On crime, it’s come to life a bit. Gordon Brown told three jokes (well, quips) – very Commons style ones, a dig at the Tory posters of his face and the “airbrushed” ones of DC and a go at DC saying: “It’s not Question Time it’s answer time.” Really did sound a lot – too…
Gary Gibbon
In the spin room…though I gather there are plans to confect “real spin” rooms where the hacks can talk to the politicos away from the cameras. This was supposed to be all about an “unmediated” dialogue with the British people but you get the impression that Messers Alexander, Coulson, Ashdown etc are here to do…
In the few hours before this seminal, historic, semi-colon in the 21st century story of Britain, I advise the three not-so-wise men who have come from afar to gather in Manchester to go on a last minute walk around the world’s greatest city. My home town can illuminate the issues in this election.
Jon Snow
Whilst the rest of us were yesterday marking that benchmark moment in our democracy when an election is called, the House of Lords was the scene of an awful climax to their Lordships’ expenses scandal. 78-year-old Lord Clarke of Hampstead was being flogged at the yard arm. Hard to know whether to feel sorry or…
Channel 4 News’s FactCheck team will be monitoring political claims thorughout the general election campaign.
Jon Snow
It predated the age of the Prime Ministerial Jag – if my memory serves, it was a Humber Super Snipe. The sense of excitement and anticipation was palpable. Ted Heath was spectacularly unpopular. Harold Wilson had only been out of power for four short years. It was 1974 – my first election as a reporter.…
Gary Gibbon
We’ve the first of three films looking at the main party leaders: a look at Nick Clegg. More blessings have been laid at his feet than for many a Liberal leader. But has he exploited them all? Party critics in the profile feel he hasn’t made the capital he might’ve done out of the expenses…
This is the big dilemma that will decide the election. Spend the shock £5- £10bn undershoot on the deficit, or bank it and pay down the national debt. Darling would spend it all, and Osborne would save it all, right? Wrong. The day that February public borrowing was shown to have reached a record seems…
