In our third constituency profile, we look at the key marginal of Stourbridge in the Midlands
Archive for April, 2010
Economic genius or just an unattached atom?
By Glyn Ford /Wednesday, April 28th, 2010Free Radical by Vince Cable and American Radical: The Life and Times of IF Stone reviewed
Shadow cabinet minister: Lib Dem-Tory coalition “extremely improbable”
By René Lavanchy /Tuesday, April 27th, 2010On the campaign trail in Watford yesterday I bumped into Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve, who was out helping their candidate Richard Harrington in his bid to topple incumbent and junior minister Claire Ward (notional majority: 1,151).
Asked about the weekend’s newspaper headlines, which report Nick Clegg as saying he would back the Tories in the event of a hung parliament, Grieve all but rubbished the idea:”I think a coalition is extremely improbable”, adding: “On the face of it, the most likely outcome of voting Liberal is to shore up the Government, not us.”
None of this means that discussions between the parties on a coalition are not underway, but Grieve doesn’t sound very keen on cosying up to Nick Clegg and his policies, does he? It raises an interesting question which I’m totally unable to answer: we’ve heard a lot about Labour cabinet views on working with the Lib Dems, but what about the Shadow Cabinet?
Meanwhile, as The Guardian reported yesterday, Clegg has re-finessed his position by saying that we would be prepared to work with Labour as well (but not Brown).
Update: So now Clegg won’t rule out working with Brown either. So everything is up for grabs. Maybe it was like that all along…
By Tribune Web Editor /Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
Hair at the Gielgud Theatre, London. Photo: Michael Le Poer Trench Read Cary Gee’s review
Place your bets on Yvette
By Paul Routledge /Tuesday, April 27th, 2010Out on the campaign trail with Yvette Cooper. Could she be a leading light after the election?
On the campaign trail with Esther Rantzen
By Cary Gee /Tuesday, April 27th, 2010In the second of our series of reports from key constituencies, Tribune visits Esther Rantzen’s unconventional campaign in Luton Sotuh
Nick Griffin: no gas chambers please, we’re British
By John Street /Monday, April 26th, 2010Jeremy Paxman had a bit of (serious) fun at Nick Griffin’s expense on Weekend Newsnight on Saturday. This bit is particularly nasty, but the whole interview is worth a look. It’s on BBC iPlayer until Saturday 1 May.
Let’s have direct elections for Prime Minster
By Graham Allen /Monday, April 26th, 2010Here’s a solution which allows both proportional voting and strong, accountable government: electing the PM directly
Two class acts on the state of the nation
By Aleks Sierz /Monday, April 26th, 2010Posh/The Empire
Royal Court, London