Who Will You Vote For In The 2010 General Election Poll

[Malika]

I always vote Lib Dem.,will continue doing so this year.

[MAXIMUS POWERS]

Any particular reason eedo Malika?

[cynical lady]

Gordon Brown was forced to surrender a string of concessions to senior Cabinet ministers to secure his leadership after Wednesday’s coup attempt, The Times has learnt.

 

The true scale of the damage to Mr Brown’s authority was laid bare as details began to emerge of the private meetings that he held with senior ministers immediately after the putsch.

 

In a series of negotiations:

 

— Harriet Harman demanded and received a promise to have more day-to-day control over the election campaign. Labour’s deputy leader also demanded to be treated with more respect from Mr Brown’s staff.

 

— Jack Straw told Mr Brown that he must not rely solely on a “core vote” strategy aimed at shoring up Labour’s heartland support.

 

— Alistair Darling urged the Prime Minister to be more honest about the cuts in public spending needed to pay off Britain’s record deficit.

 

Cabinet ministers who wanted to topple Mr Brown delayed endorsing him for as long as possible, senior figures confirmed yesterday. The coup was abandoned only after it became clear that it lacked the “overwhelming force” that ministers believed was necessary to force Mr Brown out of No 10.

 

Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, the two former Cabinet ministers who triggered the attempted putsch, were pilloried by loyalists and disowned by senior ministers thought sympathetic to their aim.

 

Nevertheless, Downing Street is still on alert for a possible Cabinet resignation over the weekend as it counts the cost of the concessions. Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, has been identified as the biggest threat, according to senior Labour MPs.

 

The embattled Mr Ainsworth, a friend of Mr Hoon, issued one of the tardiest and most lukewarm endorsements of the Prime Minister. A charm offensive is currently under way to convince him not to quit. “Bob needs bringing in from the cold. He needs to be told he is supported,” an ally of Mr Brown said.

 

The Prime Minister dismissed the move against him as a “storm in a teacup” that had not taken up “much of my time”. Mr Brown also made light of the fact that it had taken seven hours to secure total Cabinet support, saying that all ministers had issued statements backing him “within an hour or two”.

 

He tried to capitalise on anger among backbenchers at the coup attempt, hinting that Mr Hoon had been motivated by his failure to secure a position in the European Commission. “People can’t always have the jobs they want — you will always have people who are disappointed,” Mr Brown said in a BBC radio interview.

 

Mr Hoon was also warned of fury at his actions among local Labour party members in his Ashfield constituency. John Knight, the Ashfield District Council leader, said that local activists were “shocked and disappointed” at the former Chief Whip’s attempt to unseat Mr Brown.

 

It emerged yesterday that the plotters believed at least six Cabinet ministers were ready to urge Mr Brown to quit. The BBC reported the list as including David Miliband, Ms Harman, Mr Straw, Douglas Alexander, Mr Ainsworth and Jim Murphy.

 

However, Mr Straw distanced himself from the plot. “It is certainly the case that this extraordinary announcement yesterday by Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt has sunk and it’s completely ill judged and very ill advised and all of us made that clear yesterday.”

 

Mr Murphy, the Scottish Secretary, also rejected claims that he was complicit. “Yesterday Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon took it upon themselves to indulge in the total distraction of demanding a vote on the Prime Minister’s future. It was a ludicrous thing to do and the response from the vast majority of Labour MPs has confirmed that view,” Mr Murphy wrote on his personal website.

 

The Foreign Secretary, too, finally gave his unqualified support to the Prime Minister, ending 24 hours of uncertainty. However, the delay meant that Mr Miliband came under fire for appearing to withhold his backing until he had seen that the putsch had come unstuck. One MP called him a “serial bottler”.

 

On Wednesday night, seven hours after news of the coup broke, Mr Miliband finally reacted, saying only that he was campaigning for Labour’s re-election. By yesterday morning, when again confronted by the television cameras, the Foreign Secretary said: “We have an election to fight under Gordon’s leadership. We are all determined to win under his leadership and we are looking forward to the fight.”

 

One of those involved said that a number of senior Labour MPs normally considered loyal to Mr Brown had promised to come out in support of the proposal for a secret ballot.

 

“I think they got cold feet at about the same time as the Cabinet,” they said. The coup attempt was described as over in a text message circulated among moderate Labour MPs at 3.45pm on Wednesday.

[cynical lady]

January 06, 2010

Cabinet ministers demand restraining Balls and Mandelson

What began just after 11am as a clumsy coup attempt by Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt — both on the right of the party with comparatively few party supporters — ended with suggestions that up to six Cabinet ministers could still walk away.

 

While there was no sign of immediate resignations, the truth is barely less damaging: it took Downing Street close to six hours to extract grudging statements of support from key members of the Cabinet, and these were only given after Gordon Brown agreed to restrain the influence of Ed Balls, the schools secretary and longtime adviser, and Lord Mandelson, the deputy PM in all but name.

 

Even this was not enough to secure unequivocal personal endorsements from four members of the Cabinet: Alistair Darling, David Miliband, Harriet Harman and Bob Ainsworth.

 

The full extent of the damage, in a week which started with Labour on the front foot, has yet to be calculated.

 

 

Sam Coates-The Times

[cynical lady]

David Cameron admits he 'messed up' over tax breaks for marriage

 

David Cameron was forced into a rare 'mea culpa' today, admitting that he had made a mess of describing his party's policy on tax breaks for married couples in an interview on Monday.

 

The blunder has overshadowed the Conservatives' attempts to make a slick and forceful start to the general election campaign, and has left the party facing several days of headlines alleging confusion and incompetence.

 

Today Mr Cameron tried to draw a line under the affair, insisting that the pledge - wildly popular with core Tory voters - was a firm commitment and that the policy would be implemented within the life of a first Tory Parliament.

 

“The truth is, I give dozens of interviews every week and on Monday I messed up and there is no other way of putting it," Mr Cameron admitted on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

 

“I was thinking about all sorts of different things, and I misdescribed our policy. I immediately corrected that.

 

“But in my view there’s only one thing worse than messing up, and that is messing up and not admitting to it.”

 

Mr Cameron however failed once more to spell out what form the tax breaks would take.

 

On Monday night Philip Hammond, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, seemed to rule out what was assumed to be the favoured option - to allow stay-at-home spouses to transfer their personal tax-free allowance for income tax to their partner.

 

The transferable tax allowance would be worth up to £20 a week to higher income couples, and would cost the taxpayer £4.9 billion a year, according to Treasury costings.

 

Today Mr Cameron would say only that the Tories would recognise marriage “properly” in the tax system within their first Parliamentary term, without going into details.

 

“We have to be very careful about the commitment and pledges we make but that is a pledge we feel we are able to make,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme

 

The furore began after a television interview Mr Cameron gave to the BBC on Monday afternoon. Having previously promised that tax breaks would be introduced under a Tory government, he told an interviewer that he only “hoped” to do so.

 

His press office was forced to issue a statement later saying that the party was, in fact, pledged to deliver on the policy within a Parliament.

 

Gordon Brown made much of the blunder over the Despatch Box at Prime Minister's questions yesterday, gloating that Mr Cameron could not give a “straight answer” on his marriage tax proposal, “whether you can say ’I do’ or ’I don’t’ on it”.

 

Mr Camerons retorted that at least he was able to say "I love you, darling", and mean it.

 

In a further bout of frankness about his manifesto proposals, Mr Cameron also admitted today that the Tories were not now pledged to abolish income tax on savings for people on the basic rate.

 

He said that that had not been a pledge but merely a submission at the time of the 2009 budget, which the Government had failed to take up.

 

Another previous Tory promise, to build 5,000 more prison places, was also no longer a firm commitment as the work had since been “partly done” already by Labour, Mr Cameron said.

 

But he insisted that the Tory promise to freeze council tax for two years still stood.

 

“We have a pledge to do that because we’ve found the money to do that, which was by cutting government advertising and government consultancy,” he said.

 

The Tory leader said the chapter-by-chapter publication of his party’s manifesto would enable him to update the country on revisions to its commitments.

 

“The reason for having a draft manifesto - and the next chapter will be published next week - is we will be able to set out what has changed and what the Government has done that we’ve suggested, which I think is important,” he said.

 

Mr Cameron failed to deny that his image had been airbrushed for a new poster campaign by the Conservatives.

 

Commentators have noted that his features appear to have been touched up in a large portrait of his head and shoulders which forms the centrepiece of a poster which has been put up in almost 1,000 locations across the UK.

 

Asked whether they had, he laughingly said: “I certainly hope not.”

 

He went on: “I made the decision that I wanted a strong positive start to the campaign. And I think having strong, positive posters... of course I’m going get ribbing from my friends and not least my family about having my picture up there...

 

“Look, I don’t produce the picture or the poster.”

[cynical lady]

In full: the letter from Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt

 

Dear Colleague,

 

As we move towards a General Election it remains the case that the Parliamentary Labour Party is deeply divided over the question of the leadership. Many colleagues have expressed their frustration at the way in which this question is affecting our political performance. We have therefore come to the conclusion that the only way to resolve this issue would be to allow every member to express their view in a secret ballot.

 

This could be done quickly and with minimum disruption to the work of MPs and the Government. Whatever the outcome the whole of the party could then go forward, knowing that this matter had been sorted out once and for all.

 

Strong supporters of the Prime Minister should have no difficulty in backing this approach. There is a risk otherwise that the persistent background briefing and grumbling could continue up to and possibly through the election campaign, affecting our ability to concentrate all of our energies on getting our real message across.

 

Equally those who want change, should they lose such a vote, would be expected by the majority of the PLP to devote all of their efforts to winning the election. The implications of such a vote would be clear – everyone would be bound to support the result.

 

This is a clear opportunity to finally lay this matter to rest. The continued speculation and uncertainty is allowing our opponents to portray us as dispirited and disunited. It is damaging our ability to set out our strong case to the electorate. It is giving our political opponents an easy target.

 

In what will inevitably be a difficult and demanding election campaign, we must have a determined and united parliamentary party. It is our job to lead the fight against our political opponents. We can only do that if we resolve these distractions. We hope that you will support this proposal.

 

Yours fraternally,

 

Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt

[Paragon]

They are onto Miliband. Apparently he should have made a statement immediately to show his support. Rumour has it that all this is benefiting Mandelson. If things continue as they are, he (Mandelson) might have a tighter grip on party strategy, hence have more influence.

 

The Tories pray that Brown never gets replaced until the election time. They fear if labour's leadership changes, that that might unexpectedly boost their support - a new face a new hope. But as long as Brown is at the helm, it's a downward spiral. They are down 3 points already in the last few days.

 

G'luck with labour. I'm with the Greens this time.

[cynical lady]

What a waste of a vote. @Paragon.

[Paragon]

^Even for labour it's a waste unless things change radically. Who are you voting for. For me it's anything but Tories.

[cynical lady]

Why are you rejecting the Tories? Norf you too. Why.

 

You might as-well not vote if you’re voting for those small groups. Lets be honest their not going anywhere and casting it on that direction is a waste of a vote. It’s all about the 3parties…..actually 2parties the Lib are an annex, they will co-op with either the Tories or Lab near the time.

[Juxa]

i cant vote as i dont believe in democracy, also i dont have sharci

[Paragon]

^Are you biridhish? No.

 

CL, I can't vote for Cameron while I am sober.

[cynical lady]

Have some cider

[Paragon]

Only if I can pass it along.

[cynical lady]

Are you flirting with me?