Labour Party
Labour’s leadership race, World Cup-style
Posted by Nick Laitner at Tue, 15/06/2010 - 2:30pm in Political commentary
Appearing on Radio 5 during the last World Cup, in one of those effortless man-of-the-people turns that he did so well, Tony Blair was asked who Labour's Wayne Rooney might be. His response was unequivocal: David Miliband.
As the Labour leadership campaign enters its long, relentless stretch of hustings and meetings, Miliband senior may be reflecting on how Rooney has been performing thus far in the parallel, slightly more high profile campaign underway in South Africa.
Labour's search for a fourth term: the Health Mandate perspective
Posted by Martha Burgess at Mon, 12/04/2010 - 3:08pm in Health Mandate commentary, Political commentary
Labour's election manifesto, published today, is pinning its hopes on patient entitlements and a return to the Blairite agenda
Manifestos announced by any party in the modern era tend not to make big new announcements. Equally, ‘events' can derail the clearly-laid plans set out in them - no mention was made of the nationalisation of the banks in Labour's 2005 manifesto, for example.
After the election: what next for Labour's health policy?
Posted by Alex Finnegan at Fri, 19/02/2010 - 5:57pm in Health Mandate commentary, Political commentary
As the end of the 2005-2010 Parliament approaches, and the political classes gear themselves up for the general election, each of the political parties' health teams will be looking to prove that they have the big ideas to take the NHS forward in a period of tight public finance but escalating public expectation.
What are the implications of Nick Robinson's reporting?
Posted by Jonathan Lomax at Fri, 08/01/2010 - 10:30am in Internet, Political commentary
Now that the dust has settled on the Labour leadership plot that never was there is time to reflect on the way this 'micro plot' affected the news media. There has been much written recently about how blogs and Twitter will affect the General Election campaign. What is already clear, however, is that TV news reporters are already changing their style in order not to be outdone by the less-constrained blogosphere.
How not to plot the ousting of a leader, part 94
Posted by Jonathan Lomax at Wed, 06/01/2010 - 2:04pm in Political commentary
Well, we're all scratching our heads here at Mandate at the actions of Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt. The two former-Cabinet ministers have come out this afternoon to call for a secret ballot of MPs on Gordon brown's future. As usual with plotters, the challenge is couched in warm, supposedly non self-interested language - it would be an opportunity to move forward 'knowing this matter had been sorted out once and for all' they say.
Which politicians got the most media coverage during October?
Posted by Mark Pack at Mon, 02/11/2009 - 5:03pm in Political commentary
Following up our coverage of which senior politicians were the best gatherers of media coverage during their party conferences, Mandate has now been tracking their successes and failures at getting print media coverage during October.
The Conservative top ten is much the same as during their conference, with just Andrew Lansley replacing David Willetts in the top ten whilst the top five places are unchanged:
The media league table: how did the Labour Cabinet do?
Posted by Mark Pack at Fri, 02/10/2009 - 1:37pm in Political commentary
We've been crunching the post-conference numbers again, and here are the top fifteen Labour Cabinet members when it comes to gaining coverage over their party's conference in the print media and their online versions.
Losing the Sun – the best thing that could have happened for Labour
Posted by Sacha Deshmukh at Thu, 01/10/2009 - 8:55am in Political commentary
Perverse to think so? It may seem so, but losing the Sun’s backing, so publicly, is arguably the best way that Labour could have ended its Conference.
The whole Labour Conference had one single theme, to make real the prospect of a Conservative victory, to force the “soft” left-leaning middle ground to stop thinking it can safely threaten to vote Tory or even (horror of horrors) deliver its vote to Nick Clegg and sleep soundly at night. And what better way to hammer that home than with 24 hours of constant media coverage of a renewed right wing paper in rampant form?
Cuts and (a lack of) thrust
Posted by Gavin Devine at Wed, 16/09/2009 - 7:38am in Political commentary
So the newspapers this morning are abuzz with the 'news' that Gordon Brown has finally allowed the word "cuts" to escape his lips. Big deal. The only interesting thing about this is its timing, and what it demonstrates about paralysis and self-deception at the heart of Government.
What does Norwich North mean?
Posted by Nick Laitner at Fri, 24/07/2009 - 12:03pm in Political commentary
The results have just come in from yesterday's Norwich North by-election, where the Conservatives have claimed a major (if expected) coup, winning the previously safe Labour seat with a resounding majority of 7,348. Chloe Smith will become Parliament's youngest MP when she takes her seat in the House of Commons after the summer.
