Mar/10
06:30 11
Times/Populus poll puts Labour and Tories “neck and neck” in crucial marginal seats
A Populus survey for The Times has Labour level pegging with the Tories in the crucial seats that will decide the next election.
- The Times’ Peter Riddel writes: “The poll suggests that recent talk of a Tory “wobble” has affected voters’ expectations” with “a swing of about 6.7 per cent to the Tories from Labour since 2005 in those seats”.
- Anthony Wells at UK Polling Report calculates that “the swing this poll suggests in the marginals is the equivalent of a 10 point lead nationally, a larger lead than most polls from other companies have been showing in recent weeks”.
In YouGov’s daily poll the Tories maintain their slender five point gap over Labour with both parties up 1 against the Lib Dems.
Curioser and curioser.
Mar/10
23:44 5
Resigning council leader Steven Purcell “will not contest Westminster seat”
UPDATE 01:45 A mere three hours after the story broke on Twitter, The Scottish Sun has the story. Embargoes, eh?
UPDATE 4 March It has since been announced that Purcell has been treated at a rehab clinic in the Scottish borders. Purcell is a widely recognised talent and, at 37, relatively young. Whatever the circumstances of his resignation, Scrapbook for one is sure that he will be back.
UPDATE 8 March …or perhaps not! If Scrapbook (in England) had heard about the cocaine stuff on Monday night then it was clear that they weren’t going to keep a lid on it for long. Semi-stonewalling the media was never going to work and has probably scuppered the prospect of a return. This report from The Herald makes for powerful reading. Good luck to Steven in whatever he turns his efforts to when he resurfaces.
It has emerged tonight that Steven Purcell, the leader of Glasgow City Council, has resigned. Purcell was elected unopposed to lead one of Labour’s largest local authorities aged just 32 in 2005. The city employs over 36,000 staff and spends more than £2.4bn per year.
This is a moderately big deal north of the border, where Purcell is an increasingly big-hitter in the Labour movement. He is believed to have been approached by Gordon Brown to stand as a candidate in the 2008 Glasgow East by-election before the contest was eventually fought by MSP Margaret Curran.
Scrapbook understands that Purcell is not preparing to contest a Westminster seat, while Scots freelance hack @journodave has tweeted that ”Mr Purcell is to resign for personal reasons”. The mainstream media are currently sitting on an embargo.
Head to Twitter to see how this unfolds.
Feb/10
20:36 8
Conservative-linked “National Bullying Helpline” flounders in Channel 4 interview
The following video with Christine Pratt of the so-called “National Bullying Helpline” is required viewing for anyone with an interest in the allegations and counter-allegations around treatment of staff in 10 Downing Street.
In the words of Paul Waugh:
Watch as she states that she has received complaints from the “Deputy Prime Minister’s office” within the last 18 months. Wince as Gary gently points out that the ODPM hasn’t existed since 2006.
Or, as Channel 4 News’ Gary Gibbon asks Mrs Pratt:
Do you think you went on the air giving interviews yesterday without collecting all your facts about exactly what level of contact there had been? These allegations [...] don’t seem to add up.
To top things off, all of the charity’s patrons have now resigned.
Pratt by name…
Feb/10
15:53 2
“Take a second look at us and a long hard look at them”
The joke about airbrushed posters is a little weak but Brown does impress in this clip:
Hat-tip: LabourList
Feb/10
17:32 4
Two new Scottish blogs
If their blog suddenly exploded (unlikely as it is powered presumably by biodiesel) Scotland’s green movement would lose a decent clutch of its rising stars. Adam Ramsay and Gary Dunion, who were behind the recent No Shock Doctrine for Haiti campaign, have joined up with other Scottish green (Party) troublemakers such as Peter McColl and Maggie Chapman to join the ranks of blogging Edinburgh University alumni. They’re tweeting from @brightgreenscot and their RSS feed is here:
Whether they’ve exhumed his body or are receiving posts through means of séances, it seems that Lanarkshire’s own Keir Hardie has made a return to the political fray at 4wardnotback.blogspot.com. Its aggressive punchy style is exactly what Labour needs in the run up to May 6th. RSS feed is here or tweet Keir up @keirhardieblogs:
Check them out.
Feb/10
09:57 3
Recess Monkey 2004 – 2010?
UPDATE 10:06 D’oh! It seems Devil’s Kitchen had this yesterday. Slowly, slowly catchy monkey?
UPDATE 10:11 This tweet from Hilton confirms it. But, seriously, what an odd name for a children’s entertainment group.
Like the reformation of a once-beloved band, Recess Monkey wasn’t quite the same after returning from a hiatus of several months. It seemed Alex Hilton, the enfant terrible of Labour blogging, was ever busy with other projects and was too often deputised by lesser diarists, one of whom had undergone a funny-ectomy courtesty of Cowley Street.
Ever inquisitive as to what Irfan Ahmed Liberal Monkey Mr. Monkey is up to, Scrapbook’s visit to Recess Monkey this morning offered compelling evidence that the left’s favourite primate has finally been dispatched to the big parliamentary estate in the sky:
The recessmonkey.com domain now redirects to recessmonkeytown.com, the website for “the acclaimed children’s music band from Seattle, WA”. However Alex Hilton has promised members of the Recess Monkey Facebook group that he would start blogging again soon and recently appeared on Sky News opposite Tory Bear.
Is that an Iain Dale style ego-blog on the horizon?
Jan/10
20:10 1
It’s all black and white (and claret) for Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell with former Burnley manager Owen "Judas Bastard" Coyle*
Notwithstanding his penchant for dingloids (soon to be utilising that one-way ticket back to the championship), Scrapbook rather admires Alastair Campbell. The presence of the following quotes within three paragraphs of each other, however, made for a chuckle this afternoon:
“… there are only two views. He made the right judgement. Or he made the wrong judgement.”
Fair enough.
“Too much of this debate is conducted in black or white terms.”
Erm, hang on!
* If you like football and fancy a laugh click here (trust Burnley supporters to voluntarily create a venue for Bolton fans to taunt them).
Jan/10
18:31 2
A press release you definitely shouldn’t mis-type
Scotland: a nation of sheep taggers (thanks to the SNP)
LABOUR in the Scottish Parliament News Release
For immediate release
Wednesday 27 January, 2010
SHEEP TAGGING PLANS WELCOMED BY LABOUR
Commenting on the sheep tagging announcement by the Scottish Government today, Scottish Labour’s Rural Development spokesperson Karen Gillon said:
“There will no doubt be a sigh of relief from sheep farmers who have been worried about the financial impact of electronic tagging.
“Measures to help farmers in Scotland meet the costs of setting up this new technology have to be welcomed.
“We hope with the financial burden lifted for those taking part in the pilots that it helps the industry to start making a smooth transition to the new scheme.”
ENDS
Thanks to an amused Holyrood researcher for this one!
Jan/10
20:53 46
Labour’s REAL top-20 influencers on Twitter
UPDATE: Those who would prefer a more cerebral analysis (without another list!) should check out Sunder Katwala’s post from yesterday.
In the wake of Tweetminster’s report on Twitter and UK politics, Left Foot Forward have re-ordered Iain Dale’s list of the “Top 20 Labour Twitterers” using Edelman’s TweetLevel service. One of the headline findings from Tweetminster’s research was that Labour’s twitter presence is composed of a broad movement of activists rather than “official” accounts and key players in the party machinery. This is reflected in Dale’s list, based purely on follower numbers, by the conspicuous absence of a number of key left-wing influencers such as Jessica Asato and grassroots activists like Kevin Peel.
Nine months ago, follower numbers may have served as a decent rule of thumb for comparing the relative reach of different tweeters (see Blackburn Labour’s list from April). In January 2010, however, better methods to measure influence are available that are based on metrics such as re-tweets. These have been developed by startups like Tweetminster and communications professionals such as Edelman who have thrown not insignificant sums of money at their development and (unlike Iain Dale) don’t have an axe to grind:
Labour bloggers have been happily retweeting all evening that the next election on Twitter will be between the “Tory machine” and “Labour’s grassroots activists”. This was the way Tweetminster put it in their report, published today. Assuming that party officials, candidates and MPs are defined as the “party machine” I’d say Tweetminster have got it the wrong way round judging by these two lists. Twelve out of the Top 20 Labour tweeters are in the party machine, compared with 11 Tories.
Iain Dale blazed a trail to become the UK’s first “name” political blogger in large part by burnishing his credentials as an independent thinker: ”Tory but not slavish”. The above paragraph, however, is an insult to the intelligence of his readers and a good example why many of Scrapbook’s politico friends have stopped reading him.
Below is an update of Left Foot Forward’s list, including many tweeters absent from Dale’s original numerology. The numbers in brackets are the score given by TweetLevel. Of course, if you’ve been missed off then let Scrapbook know in the comments.
1: Tom Watson (69)
2: Sarah Brown (67)
4: Ellie Gellard (65)
4: John Prescott (65)
5: Kerry McCarthy (64)
5: Tracey Cheetham (64)
6: Alastair Campbell (63)
7: Wes Streeting (61)
8: Tim Cheetham (60)
9: Kevin Peel (59)**
9: Labour List (59)
9: Claire Spencer (59)
10: Sunny Hundal (58)
10: Tom Scholes-Fogg (58)
11: Labour Matters (56)
11: Liberal Conspiracy (56)
12: Adam Bienkov (55)
12: Tom Harris (55)
12: Political Scrapbook (55)
13: Conor Pope (54)
13: The Fabian Society (54)
13: Northern Heckler (54)
14: Sunder Katwala (53)
15: Anthony Painter (52)
15: CathElliott (52)
15: Lord Paul Drayson (52)
16: Alex Smith (51)
16: Chris Paul (51)
16: Jessica Asato (51)
16: Jim Knight (51)
16: Luke Pollard (51)
16: Adam Connell (51)
17: Tom Miller (50)
17: Co-operative Party (50)
18: Stuart Bruce (49)
18: Will Straw (49)
18: Paul Williams (49)
19: sion simon (48)
19: Left Foot Forward (48)
20: Tudor Evans (47)
20: Kevin Maguire (47)
20: Sadiq Khan (47)
21: Kerron Cross (46)
21: Ben Folley (46)
22: David Miliband (45)
22: Gemma Tumelty (45)
22: Sally Bercow (45)
A special mention should go to Labour’s first couple of Twitter. No, not Ed and Yvette but Tim (7th 8th) and Tracey (4th 5th).
Aww, how tweet!*
*Sorry.
UPDATE II:** The original list above is now updated below to include many Labourites that were left off (and Sunny Hundal)! The statistician George Box said that “all models are wrong, but some are useful”. In this vein, a few people were the first to admit their surprise at making this list, seeming to uncover some issues with the TweetLevel metrics. But, even discarding such outliers completely, such tools nevertheless reinforce Tweetminster’s findings that the Labour grassroots take the lead in the party’s efforts online.
Palin-O-Meter
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