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Political coverage from Sam Coates on Times Online. Subscribe to a feed of this blog at: http://timesonline.typepad.com/politics/rss.xml

May 02, 2008

Times page 1

It's wrap up time here, but for those who live outside London here is the final edition of tomorrow's front page... A brilliant night for the Tories and full marks for the Tory spin operation. Few crumbs of consolation for the testy Labour ministers on the telly. The Libs look like they've just scraped home in Liverpool and across the country so no early crisis for Nick Clegg.

But after the last month - where Downing Street faced backbench revolts, dire polls and a humiliating U-turn, it's hard to see where the Labour Party can go now since everything that could be said has been said already over the last month. The danger is that Number 10 starting blaming Labour MPs for causing the 10p tax row, and the relationship spirals into violence.

We await the Today programme.

By Philip Wester, Political Editor.

The Conservatives made sweeping gains across the country early today as voters gave Gordon Brown a huge rebuff in his first electoral test as Prime Minister. David Cameron chalked up important successes in the North, the Midlands and the South , securing his top target of Bury in Greater Manchester and taking control of Nuneaton and Bedworth, and Southampton. The Conservatives also took seats in Labour strongholds of Sunderland and Wigan. Labour suffered one of its worst electoral humiliations, with its national share of the vote dropping to 24 or 25 per cent.The Tory share was projected at 43 or 44 per cent, better than its most optimistic predictions. The margin was similar to the drubbing handed out to John Major in 1995 two years before Tony Blair entered Downing Street.

Sam Coates on May 02, 2008 at 02:42 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Email this post

March 12, 2008

Ann Treneman and Peter Riddell - a sneak preview

The verdicts that count: Make sure you read the full version online from midnight.

Peter Riddell: Even on Mr Darling’s forecasts, there will be little room for manoeuvre next year, and there are big downside risks if the slowdown is worse, and recovery longer delayed, than expected. The immediate pain from yesterday’s tax increasing measures will no doubt be unpopular but this will be less significant in the longer-term-- that is in electoral calculations - than the state of the economy. The Budget may not have been inspiring, but it represented the Government’s best, or least worst, case scenario.

Ann Treneman: Mr Darling gave Mrs Darling a hug (one of the few nice things in life he hadn’t taxed). “Shall we celebrate, Darling?” he asked. She got out the biodegradable paper cups and poured some of the specially filtered tap water they keep for very big occasions.
“To stability!” they cried, clunking their cups so hard that one crumpled on impact.

Sam Coates on March 12, 2008 at 18:42 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Email this post

    • The Red Box

    • Sam Coates is Chief Political Correspondent for The Times, based in the Houses of Parliament. Red Box is a rolling insider guide to Westminster. Click here to contact Sam
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