The ICM poll in tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph on general election voting intention makes devastating reading for Labour supporters. And it becomes even worse when you look at the figures for the Euro Elections...
The figures for UKIP seem to be at odds with YouGov who put them in second place on 19%. The rise in the support for the LibDems seems to come from disillusioned Labour supporters.
There has been much comment in recent days about the complete disappearance of Gordon Brown from our TV screens. Apart from one sighting kissing a baby he is nowhere to be seen. But he's not alone. Not a single Cabinet Minister is making an appearance on the political programmes this weekend. Astonishing, bearing in mind polling day is only four days away.
I think we are about to enter momentous times. Gordon Brown is presumably spending all his time wargaming the post elections scenarios. Everyone assumes he wants to hold a major, snap reshuffle. That's what beleaguered prime ministers do. But I think Brown is planning something much bigger. What is it? Frankly, neither I nor anyone else has the faintest idea. A general election? resignation? Take your choice. But whatever it is, I suspect I am going to regret taking a short trip to America at the end of next week...
Hattip for graphics to ConservativeHome
UPDATE: Gordon Brown is apparently on Marr tomorrow.
42 comments:
government of national unity.gordon's going lloyd george-ish on us.labours following the liberals in to obscurity.roll on the 2010 commitee.
I love the German word for this . . . schardenfauder!
It couldn't happen to a more corrupt party than Labour - and they so richly deserve all that's coming their way at the General Election.
I think I can almost see the sunlit uplands after the long darkness of the Labour Government. :o)
More than one on five still wants to vote Labour
Remarkable. Who are these people?
What is Brown planning?
Nothing. The going is tough so......
His absence is predictable.
He was, is and always will be Maccavity.
Gutless Gormless Gordon
Brown is due on Marr tomorrow, I think.
Iain, Brown is on Marr in the morning. I have just posted on this
McCavity is nowhere to be seen. But he will relaunch, the British people want him to tackle the big issues which he is doing ceaselessly, he is not a novice, he is ... probably filming for YouTube congratulating the winner of "Britain's Got Talent".
All out nuclear war on N Korea and/ or Iran?
Bit of a long shot for G Brown, but its the only card he has left.
I love the way that now Labour can see power slipping from their grasp they talk more and more about PR and constitutional reform. I see they are talking up the fact that Gordo might invite senior Lib Dems into the Government.
I hope the Lib Dems don't fall for this trick aimed at making Gordo look like the statesman getting all the parties together under a "coalition" Government while stating the Tories won't play.
All just another desperate attempt by GB to cling to power, the sooner we see the back of him and his corrupt party the better.
Do you think that he'll call for by-elections for all those implicated in Expenses Gate?
Iain, definitely agree. It's a new low in a series of lows for the PM.
I wonder if UKIP only having a significant showing in England and the SNP/Plaid outperforming Labour in Scotland/Wales will ultimately mean that UKIP can obtain more MEPs with a lower share of the vote.
There's a good chance Labour will onlyu get 1 MEP in Scotland which means that UKIP only really have to beat Labour in England, not in the whole of the UK.
Just a thought.
Old Holborn said "More than one on five still wants to vote Labour. Remarkable. Who are these people?"
People who have New Labour to thank for the fact they have a nice, cushy public sector job. People who have New Labour to thank for providing all the money they need to live on other people's money, etc etc...
"But I think Brown is planning something much bigger. What is it? Frankly, neither I nor anyone else has the faintest idea."
I really hope he's not going to try rolling the dice on some Constitutional stitch-up to save Labour's skin, but I wouldn't put anything past him. That is if he can actually summon up the courage to do it. God knows what goes on inside his head.
Don't under estimate Brown and Labour's desperation to cling on.
I think they will try anything - and I mean anything - to either smear the Tories, or get some emergency legislation through regarding PR. Brown has shown himself to be very close to being a virtual dictator at times.
We all know the Limp Dims cannot form a govt on their own - so - Clegg and Brown disappear for a few days.......hhhmmmmm. Power sharing deal? Can't see it - would utterly destroy the Lib Dems as an independent party.
Truth is, who cares what Labour does? They are finished - they know it, the media knows it, and the public know it. Unless they can re-incarnate Ghandi, or JFK, as their leader, there's nothing on this earth that can stop their richly deserved annihilation.
Utterly wonderful. Brown's been arrested on my blog!
These rumblings about a Lib-Lab pact to be announced on Marr tomorrow, there isn't anything in them is there?
Clegg would be insane to do something like that at this juncture. It would be seen (rightly) as a total stitch-up and an assault on the British democratic process. Moreover, it would harm the LibDems just when they apparently have a serious chance of overhauling Labour long-term.
It would be madness to court Brown now. Mind you, they are LibDems so anything is possible I suppose. But Clegg making the biggest error of judgment about a man's character since Chamberlain went to Munich? Could he be that dumb?
I sort of doubt it, actually.
See Euro poll to see why PR will never happen in Britain. Eurosceptic Parties 55%. Europhiles 35% or so.
Very bad polls like this might persuade some Labour voters who were planning to stay at home to vote to save their party from humiliation. I think that he is going to announce a referendum on PR with himself leading the campaign. It would be difficult to sack him during that
Iain asks : “Brown is planning something much bigger. What is it?”
Some sort of national emergency to be announced next April or May which will require the cancellation of the June elections.
David, it is Schadenfreude, you point is totally valid tho !
OH asks “More than one on five still wants to vote Labour. Remarkable. Who are these people?” Payroll vote ?
Alan Douglas
I wonder if The Times characature of Susan Boyle as Brown this morning was the Jonah factor in her not winning ???
I know what's going on: Gordon Brown is summoning up the courage to chicken out.
He knows its over, he knows he need to so something, but he's never taken decisive action in his life.
So he's gone into hiding; desperately trying to steel himself for the ordeal ahead, where he's comprehensively rejected by, well, everyone.
The most important thing is to not lose focus upto and on voting day, and remember why so much anger is flowing through the country at the moment and its cause.
Don't let the troughers get away with the upset they've created. Use the vote to speak your protest, if so inclined.
Gordon and his far left weirdo's will be too weak to try any constitutional reforms, if they lose bigtime on the 4th. They will have been Told.
This trip to America Iain..dont suppose you could take Broon with you could you....and bloody well leave him there!!!!!!!!!
Marr is asking Brown about his personal expense claims and why he is claiming taxpayers money for a second parliament in Brussels.
I saw a headline about Labour trying to offer cabinet seats to Lib Dems, but the story seems to have been pulled from the source that reported it. ( Too early ? )
Brown is most likely to want to do something extremely vindictive and political to try to attack the Conservatives - because that what he always does.
I would love to know what has been going on between Brown and those Lib Dem sell out monkeys. They can always be bought and tnat has to be the only way.
Maybe offering Lib Dems seats on the Cabinet ?
Well Iain The Mail is now fingering David Cameron over the expeses scandal what do you think? Does it pass the Cameron smell test?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1189788/Cameron-took-maximum-taxpayer-funded-mortgage--paid-75k-loan-months-later.html?ITO=1490
where has this so-called rumour come about regarding some kind of pact between lib and lab?
It's total bollocks. The labour party won't stomach it, and neither will the dems.
OK - found the source on the Labour hugging the Lib Dems thing here.
In fairness to the Lib Dems it all looks like a Labour fantasy.
Its Brown doing his usual mistake of raising expectations hopelessly high, so that whatever he does looks weak when he does it.
Nick Clegg is an absolute mug if he has any truck with Labour this side of a general election.
Though he must be up to something having been spotted from St Stephen's Tavern this afternoon ( not on the campaign trail eh Nick - what keeps you in Westminster ? )
Where the F@ck is Gordon??? I was asking myself this only this morning. We all know he's as yellow bellied as they come - but so close to an election. He is admitting he is a liability. He may not accept he is, but he is, isn't he?
He's a yellow bellied, troughing vote loser.
So how can a self admitted liability run a party????
The Queen has told him to f@ck off. I think some English cabinet members have told him to f@do off, the pollsters have told him to f@ck off, the Internet has told him to f@ck off and on Friday the voters will tell him to f@do off.
It's awfully quiet out there????
Anonymous
The rumour comes from various Labour big wigs making noises about PR. Whilst they were winning, such a thing could not be countenanced. Now they hope to cling to a scrap of power by seducing Clegg and Cable.
They hope to form a new Goats - Government of All the Turncoats.
>OK - found the source on the Labour hugging the Lib Dems thing here.
Vince Cable in the Indy tomorrow (page 2)
"Mr Cable dismissed reports that he
could be in line for a job in the Cabinet under Mr Brown as a blatant
strategy by Downing Street to try to stabilise the Prime Minister.
He added: “I would not agree to be
co-opted into a Labour government
in its dying days. There is not a scintilla of truth in the idea that I might become Chancellor.
“I am part of Nick Clegg’s team and
that is where I intend to remain. This kind of arrangement might have been possible in the early days of Tony Blair’s government, but not now. What we need now is an election.”
when i see some substantive evidence, not press tittle tattle and blog hysteria, i'll believe it.
the times newspaper makes no mention of it - apart from brown reshuffling the cabinet and making balls chancellor.
people are so quick to believe everything they read and hear.
Looking back - as German tanks rolled through Sedan a government of national unity was considered vital. But no one thought Neville Chamberlain was the right man to lead it.
'FloTom' - the Mail story is a complete smear. It is a complete non story and relied on Mail readers being totally lard headed to consider it even remotely realistic.
How can Camerons ACA pay for two mortgages?? His ACA was paying towards his constituency home - as it was designed to do. So how could it pay for his existing London home - which has nothing to do with anybody.
Oops Mail editor is a pall of Browns. Well well ...
Telegraph editor is a pall of Balls, who the Times are now tipping to be a new Chancellor. Well well well ....
Who'd a thunk it ???
Thanks Man In Shed, Victor, Matt Wardman. Excellent stuff.
Well trev I cannot say you are right or wrong as you give no links or verifiable evidence of what you say.
What I will say however is for most of the public the headline will be enough. It will be remembered long after the text of the story is finished.
If it is a smear as you say no doubt Cameron will be suing or demanding an apology?
A reshuffle would be shifting the deckchairs on the Titanic when its already under water
What amazes me is that with a forecast voting majority of 40% to 22% the elextion outcome will only be an overall majority of some 88 seats.
There has obviously been some serious gerrimandering going on. They are going to have to get an urgent grip on this. A 50% reduction in the number of MPs elected from Scotland would be a start.
He was on Andrew Marr this morning being his usual unlikable self. One of the strange things is that he apparently has apologised in a letter to Labour activists, something he cannot do to the British people.
Still, on the Tory side and on a personal note, it must be strange for you Iain supporting a party (that is on the winning path) which is siding with homophobic, gay-bashing and neo-Nazi parties in Eastern Europe. I am curious - how does that make you feel?
Matt/Victor - it isn't true, but I suspect the story is a get-up by the NuLab PR-creepz to try to get some reflected credit from us by just floating the idea. In the past they've mentioned both Vince and Menzies. It's just flim-flam.
DL, utter rubbish. The Conservatives have no links with these parties and never will have. It's a smear out about by Labour and the LibDems. Wait to see who they form a group with. It won't be such parties, I can assure you.
Oh come on Iain. Why are they having talks with them then - do you deny the talks are taking place? Strange if you do, since they are in all the papers.
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