Hello! I'm Mark Pack, author of both 101 Ways To Win An Election and Bad News: what the headlines don't tell us, along with maintaining the largest database of national voting intention polls in the UK, stretching back to 1943. The next general election is most likely several years away, but political polling of voting intentions for a general election is in full swing. Half-a-dozen firms are polling regularly, with a handful of occasional surveys from others too. Below the table, you'll find the option to sign up to email updates about new polls and also a set of answers ...
Tony Blair is a man much disliked particularly within Labour Party circles but, without doubt, he has been the most progressive PM the UK has had in many generations. Yes, I know that's not saying a great deal because all the other PM's who have won General Elections, have been Conservatives. The left and particularly those who are within Labour's fold seem to hate Blair with about as much passion as they hate Thatcher. This has long intrigued me not least because all the other elected PM's, as I said, in recent times have been Conservative and therefore regressive of ...
Jurassic Park won the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1994, the only film to win between 1993 and 1997 (TV shows Star Trek: The Next Generation and Babylon 5 won twice each in that period). It beat three other films and a TV episode, in order: The Nightmare Before Christmas, Groundhog Day, Babylon 5 - "The Gathering" and Addams Family Values. The only one of those that I have seen is Groundhog Day, and while I like it a lot, I would have voted Jurassic Park ahead of it. IMDB users also like Jurassic Park, rating it #2 film ...
Over the past couple of days, I have talked to many people about many things both local and national. One subject that has not crossed my lips or those of anyone that I have conversed with is the BBC and ... Continue reading →
Fri, 12:56: RT @Reading_Tegan: Bell https://t.co/rzXJh2eLu7 Fri, 16:05: Georgia's Hypermodern Parliament Building Faces Uncertain Future https://t.co/4yi3UBtf4x A massive white elephant. Fri, 18:40: Friday reading https://t.co/2a1FqVDGeq Fri, 19:59: Well, I've been Pfizered! Second dose in five weeks' time. https://t.co/gEyvymxmpk Sat, 09:30: Whoniversaries 22 May https://t.co/n4YhDuGrVZ Sat, 10:07: 430 days of plague: first dose https://t.co/4YGuqJ6jzS Sat, 10:45: RT @jonworth: "Brexit. That's pretty much it from me." A blog post on why you're going to get a lot less Brexit / UK-EU politics diagnosis... Sat, 11:53: RT @georgiaEtennant: #conversationswithafiveyearold https://t.co/EBl8gE63Lq
Having spent most of my Saturdays this year hosting maraphones and making a lot of calls to voters, I might have reasonably expected a few weeks off. However, the Chesham and Amersham by-election is well and truly upon us. The writ was only moved a week ago on Wednesday but already the postal votes are about to go out. Every election these days has two polling days – when the postal votes land and on the actual day when people go to the polling station. And with more people choosing to vote by post in these Covid times, postal vote ...
I'm cheating a bit by writing this on Saturday morning and backdating to the moment last night when I got my first dose of Pfizer. My arm is a bit sore, thank you, and I am braced for further reactions today, but it's a lot better than the alternative. Apart from that, I went into Brussels again on Thursday and had my first outdoor coffee meeting with N, who worked in my then office exactly ten years ago (see current bookblog nostalgia posts) and has gone on to greater things. The reasin for going in was another office leaving party, ...
The Guardian speculates that Dominic Cummings' evidence to MPs on Wednesday about Boris Johnson's role in making key decisions that critics say may have cost many thousands of lives promises to be the parliamentary event of the year so far - and may yet determine the fate of the prime minister. They say that hurt by the manner of his departure from No 10, alongside Johnson's longtime aide Lee Cain, and by the briefing war that then ensued, Cummings seems intent on doing maximum damage to his former boss: "He doesn't like the way he left: he thinks he should ...
i) births and deaths 22 May 1944: birth of John Flanagan, co-writer of Meglos (Fourth Doctor, 1980) 22 May 2001: death Jack Watling, who played Professor Travers in The Abominable Snowmen (Second Doctor, 1967), The Web of Fear (Second Doctor, 1968) and Downtime (unofficial, 1995). ii) broadcast anniversaries 22 May 1965: broadcast of "The Executioners", first episode of the story we now call The Chase. The Tardis crew play with the Time-Space Visualiser and land on the planet Aridius, where the Daleks have pursued them. 22 May 1971: broadcast of first episode of The Dæmons. As archæologists open the ancient ...
From the City Council : THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 - SECTION 14(1) THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of Scottish Water ironwork repairs being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Glamis Drive (between Hillside Road and Glamis Road), Dundee. This notice comes into effect on Wednesday 26 May 2021 for one day. Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained. Alternative routes for vehicles are available via Glamis Road / Perth Road / Invergowrie Drive / Glamis Drive. For further information contact 433082. Executive ...
On of this blog's established roles is engendering irrational optimism in its Liberal Democrat readers. So I was naturally drawn to a piece of research by Luke Jeffrey that suggests some Conservative seats in the South of England may be vulnerable to the Lib Dems. Jeffrey looks at this month's local election results in 82 Tory seats across Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. He finds that the Lib Dems outpolled the Tories in seven of them: Winchester, Eastleigh, Eastbourne, Chippenham, Cheltenham, Watford, and South Cambridgeshire. Across these 82 seats, the Lib Dems ...
