Are the Tories over the worst of the wobble?

Alex

The Ashcroft story is interesting.

What interests me more os why the MSM do not attcak Labour for all their non-dom donor's, notably Mittal, Lord Paul, Mahmoud Khayami etc.

Can somebody enlighten me? What is the difference?

TrevorsDen

You might spend some time thinking about and discussing polling methodologies if you are going to put such great store by a poll.

YouGovv have specifically changed their methodology in the last few weeks ready for these rather pointless daily polls... and they regularly under perform Libdems to the benefit of Labour compared to other polls (Angus Reid regularly under perform Labour).

Other polls actually try to second guess these who say they don't know and more importantly say they will not vote (the posh word for this is 'weighting') - it seems to mysteriously benefit Labour.

In other polls a Tory lead of say 12 points is reduced to 6 after various weightings - and this when it is well known that pollsters need to weight labour down because pollsters know they actually sample more labour voters.

These polls must have some basis in fact - because 'people' say so ... but their statistical manipulation needs to be examined if you are going to report them with such fervour.

Short the UK

After a long chat with my Mum on the politics of Britain I have decided I'm going to vote for Labour.

I think all Tories should vote for Labour thus enabling them to win with a small majority. Then the chickens will come home to roost, Labour will be destroyed, the Tories can sweep to power and change Britain fundamentally.

I think the Tories should throw this election as it is a chalice posioned beyond belief.

Let the money printing elite sip the New Labour kool-aid.

Read the history of the 364 Economists who battled Maggie, sound money won.

Only when the public are truly ready for radical change will the Tory party properly rise to power and change this country for the good.

To hell with the socialists and money printers, let them win and drink the poison that they so love.

Vote Labour, vote for sanity.

luke

How do you interpret Cameron's settling of strategy?

Beer Moth

So, Cameron and his closest colleagues are quite happy at the prospect of fighting and election, with no mention whatsoever about the issue which threatens the country with invasion and subjugation.

Seems that the playing fields of Eton are trying to make up for their squalid part in the building of the British Empire, by also nurturing those tasked with the immolation of the British People.

And the banner says 'Conservative'.

TGF UKIP

Sorry James, but you are not facing up to the reality of Dave's show pony best being simply not enough to counter the blunt and inescapable that for an overwhelmingly economic election, the Tories have no credible economic messenger.

And if you doubt that assertion, I suggest you merely take a look at the Osborne interview with Marr yesterday.

Chuck Unsworth

@ Beer Moth

"their squalid part" being what, exactly? Do you actually know and understand anything of British Colonial history?

Molasses are nice

Seems to me most of the comments to the Telegraph article are not exactly full of praise for the Tories after this speech. Brown is going to win this thing. There is probably a German word for the feeling but am I alone as an ex Conservative voter for preferring the prospect of Gordonian scorched earth for another 5 years leading to eventual Untergang amidst IMF rulings and civil unrest than endure a single term Tory party which seems determined to be heir to Blair? To recover we need to hit rock bottom and it will feel like a quicker death. At least I can continue to ignore politicians if Broon stays in his lair - but if I have to live through the Tories carrying on the New Labour motion I think I'll have a seizure.

John David Barnett

I hope the worst is over. It would be terrible if Brown got back.

welease woger

Steve Richards (Independent) was on radio 5 saying his paper will be publishing poll results tomorrow "confirming the recent trend of a narrowing lead for the Conservatives". He didn't say what the figures were though.

JONNY

I suppose you wouldn't count Ken Clarke TGF UKIP because he's a Europhile.
But I do.
And that's the important thing.

emil

on the basis that the quickest way to get shot of this vile government is to convince Brown his best chance of winning is to call a snap election if anyone asks me I'm definitely voting Labour. Now if a few like minded individuals are thinking along the same lines............

TomTom

The Guardian article and comments below show Labour received £6.7 million from Non-Doms to Conservative £5.3 million. That is a lot of money from rich men who do not want to pay taxes in countries where they buy politicians.

Sad to live in a banana republic without bananas

dannysutherland

Comres has Labour as biggest party apparently

Liberty

Am I the only one who is infuriated by the BBC making Lord Ashcroft's tax affairs the headline in their hourly news all day and to spend ten minutes on Ashcroft at the beginning of the 1pm and 5pm news, all of it negative as if there is some conspiracy to defraud the British people with only a token reference to the fact that his behaviour is entirely legal, non-dom status is used by hundreds of people and many Labour and LD people?

At the end of the item they had Lord Paul come on and say that both he, Lord Ashcroft and every other non-dom is perfectly legal and the BBC just took it as if he was the fount of all wisdom.

the BBC must be confronted on their obvious Labour bias.

Beer Moth

Chuck Unsworth

Yes. Quite a bit.

Please read it again and ask yourself if this particular description (of the BE) might, for rhetorical effect, have been written with a deep and resentful sense of irony?

Yeah. As wrong as that.

Dorothy Wilson

Alex: Extract from the Sunday Times, 28 February:

“The Treasury dropped plans to increase tax on private equity just days before two of the industry's richest tycoons made donations to Labour worth £1.25m.

In the run-up to last December's budget statement, ministers ordered officials to draw up proposals to end the special low tax enjoyed by venture capitalists.

However, according to Treasury insiders, hostility to the plan from No 10 meant that the private equity sector escaped any tax rises.

The pre-budget report of the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, on December 9 also exempted private equity bosses from the bonus tax imposed on other highly paid City workers.

Nine days later on December 18, Nigel Doughty, the chairman of the private equity giant Doughty Hanson and owner of Nottingham Forest Football Club, who has an estimated fortune of £119m, gave £1m to Labour.

On December 23 the venture capitalist Sir Ronald Cohen, whose fortune is estimated at £220m, donated £250,000 to Labour.”

None of the other papers seem to have picked this up though.

Beer Moth

Short the UK

Thanks, you and your Mum have switched on a light; have sanctioned what I was thinking might be the best course of action in the - not too - long run.

The Tories would be buffoons to think that whoever is in charge this next three years, have a cat in hell's chance.

This possibly explains why Dapper Dave is making such a barn's arse of his appeal to the public. The more astute ear would read it thus: 'Please understand this utter bollocks as just that - vote for the others, for God's sake vote for the others and leave us out of it for a while'

Barnacle Bill

Short the UK -
I've got a bag of sand on there being two General Elections this year.
I think the awfully nice Mr. Cameron has decided to throw the next GE, let NuLabor get back in to stew in their own made mess.
Probably supported by the LibDems who will be selling their souls to NuLabor on the promise of electoral reform.
Then when it all goes tits up later in the year, the Tories will romp home, but with a new leader!

Alexandrovich

Beer Moth - or may I call you Behemoth - please do not blunt your irony to cater for the slower amongst us. You are one of the few posters I look forward to reading.

Major Plonquer

I object to the use of the term Non-Dom as applied to the dear Lord Ashcroft. Surely as a Conservative the term should be 'Con-Dom'.

This is doubly true as, like his prophylactic namesake, he is only guilty of protecting a bunch of pricks.

2trueblue

We all seem to be on the same page and aware that the media is totally and utterly on Liebores side. It is scary as I do believe that if Liebore get in, even by the slimmest majority that democracy is dead. Postal voting has already caused a lot of concern, but if they get in and use the Lib Dems to change our whole system, then the UK will be a true banana republic, without the sun and fruit.

Why are the media so hell bent on failing to do their job?

Andrew S

Short the Uk

Tempting though it would be to saddle Brown with making the cuts the IMF will impose after a Liebour victory - the reality is he will chnage the electoral system so any party with even a whiff of a right of centre agenda will never hold the balance of power for a generation to come. Anyone who holds out any hope for the future must get out there and vote Conservative. Tell your Mum.

TomTom

Why are the media so hell bent on failing to do their job?

Electrify them with a Pledge to Abolish the TV Licence

Hugo van Randwyck

Barnacle Bill makes a good point. It does look like the Conservatives are doing 2 things:
- firstly making it look like they want to get elected
- secondly making it easier for newer parties to get more votes

The Ashcroft story is interesting for it highlights the difference in spending on the election campaign. Labour will easily outspend any party. They have borrowed £170 bn to get re-elected. They know exactly where to spend it and how to spend it, to get re-elected.

The media is obsessed with these 3 parties, that it makes it easier for newer parties to gain votes, by actually offering policies people like - just like new businesses in competition with cartels.

stephen maybery

So Lord Ashcroft ain't paid no tax, am I bovered? well no actually. Of course the Westminster village is dancing up and down while foaming at the mouth, not to mention having a dose of the screaming ab dabs, this is the sort of issue which really gets the little darlings going. Unfortunately, for all the hoo ha emanating from the official classes, the rest of us are largely unmoved. We who dwell in the real world, the one that starts at the boundaries of the M25, have more pressing concerns, like how to keep a job and pay the mortgage. All we want are people who can actually govern us with at least a modicum of competence, and if remotely possible, honesty, and we would all gladly avoid tax if we could get away with it.