Tory opinion poll lead shrinks from 20% to just 6% in 1 year

[Tony]

So was it not "nice to meet you" for Jack Straw?

 

It's a bit odd for a Government minister to make a beeline for a besanctioned despot, tell him that it's "nice to meet you" while smiling and warmly shaking his hand.

 

So that means that Jack Straw is either a liar or has incredibly bad judgement. Either way he's not fit to hold high office.

[Wildcat]

So was it not "nice to meet you" for Jack Straw?

 

It's a bit odd for a Government minister to make a beeline for a besanctioned despot, tell him that it's "nice to meet you" while smiling and warmly shaking his hand.

 

So that means that Jack Straw is either a liar or has incredibly bad judgement. Either way he's not fit to hold high office.

 

Alternatively as he said at the time, he was just shaking hands with anyone! I find it hard to believe you are unaware of his defence, so why are you being deliberately misleading?

[Tony]

"Shaking hands with anyone" ?

 

I have heard his "defence" but I've also seen the photograph.

 

http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2004/Sep/Week4/1243348.jpg

 

He's a liar isn't he? Or was it just incredibly bad judgement?

[Wildcat]

"Shaking hands with anyone" ?

 

I have heard his "defence" but I've also seen the photograph.

 

http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2004/Sep/Week4/1243348.jpg

 

He's a liar isn't he? Or was it just incredibly bad judgement?

 

Neither. It is a who cares what he did moment. What is important is our foreign policy towards Zimbabwe.

[Tony]

To be fair I quite like Jack Straw. He's usually one of the smart ones but even he's been infected by Brown's endemic culture of deceit, misdirection and cover up.

 

His tribute to Michael Foot was genuine and nice if a little bumbling but he omitted mentioning his long running KGB connections and Soviet sympathies. Maybe that will make another thread another day.

[TeaFan]

And irrelevant, because they are constituencies not voters.

 

As Tony has already shown us with his stats BNP voters are less likely to have voted Labour before.

 

It may be that the BNP vote comes from poorer areas that are also Labour heartlands but that is not the same thing.

 

The BNP adopted a strategy as early as 1996 of targeting traditional Labour strongholds, so I think you are probably wrong. They could see that Bliar was going to be similar to Mitterand in France, in turning the party's back on the working class to chase middle class votes. It was Mitterand who laid the ground for Le Pen's FN in France, and the BNP have done better under New Labour than ever before.

 

If the sectarians hadn't split the Socialist Alliance I think it's likely that they could have capitalised on the disillusionment with Labour. But since the Left would rather argue among themselves than co-operate it's increased the threat from fascism.

[Wildcat]

To be fair I quite like Jack Straw. He's usually one of the smart ones but even he's been infected by Brown's endemic culture of deceit, misdirection and cover up.

 

His tribute to Michael Foot was genuine and nice if a little bumbling but he omitted mentioning his long running KGB connections and Soviet sympathies. Maybe that will make another thread another day.

 

Perhaps he didn't make those claims because, it would have been specatularly disrespectful to do so, not least because they are untrue and when the Times published them they lost a substantial amount of money in the resulting libel case.

[Wildcat]

The BNP adopted a strategy as early as 1996 of targeting traditional Labour strongholds, so I think you are probably wrong. They could see that Bliar was going to be similar to Mitterand in France, in turning the party's back on the working class to chase middle class votes. It was Mitterand who laid the ground for Le Pen's FN in France, and the BNP have done better under New Labour than ever before.

 

If the sectarians hadn't split the Socialist Alliance I think it's likely that they could have capitalised on the disillusionment with Labour. But since the Left would rather argue among themselves than co-operate it's increased the threat from fascism.

 

The point you have made is not in disagreement with me.

[Tony]

Perhaps he didn't make those claims because, it would have been specatularly disrespectful to do so, not least because they are untrue and when the Times published them they lost a substantial amount of money in the resulting libel case.

 

Go on then, I'll do the thread since you asked.

[wednesday1]

Update (from Yougov):

 

According to the Press Association, YouGov’s daily poll for the Sunday Times meanwhile has topline figures of CON 38%(nc), LAB 33%(+1), LDEM 17%(nc). Once again, there is no significant change and no sign of the Conservative recovery that ICM picked up. Other than the 2 point lead last weekend which in hindsight appears to have been a blip, YouGov have now been showing a lead of around 6 points for a fortnight, with no obvious effect from either the Brown bullying allegations or the Ashcroft tax arguments.

 

More tomorrow when we see the full Sunday Times results.