Bob Piper has been a Labour Councillor for the Abbey
Ward in Sandwell, West Midlands, for 10 years. He is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club and a follower of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
The views expressed here are mine in a personal capacity, not those of the Labour Party, Sandwell MBC, Aston Villa or Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Get it! Mine... just mine!
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
One opinion poll shows the Tory lead is falling, and people get all excited. The chattering classes and Guardianistas start predicting a hung parliament, Clegg starts his bartering for partners, and Labour bloggers start getting excited because maybe all is not lost after all.
Of course, some of us have been saying it ain't over til it's over for some time now, so we're not going to get into a lather because the folk at Ipsos Mori says we have a better chance than the good chaps at ICM. These people are the political equivalent of Gypsy Rose Lee on the front at Blackpool. They send out their researchers to ask a bunch of people who can't remember what they did last Monday, whether they are going to change the way they voted from that day in May 2005.
Lots of people have tons of fun pouring over the figures as if they were the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the good people at Political Betting wait with baited breath for every opinion poll to be published... and then people treat the figures seriously. They come on this blog and others telling me that Brown is toast (rather than the other way round) and that Labour will be wiped out, and a Tory majority in the hundreds will spell the end, not just of Labour, but of history itself.
And they may be right. But the important thing is, they don't ... know! Before the last election those of us in the Labour Party were continually being told by right-whingers that the game was up, Blair and Brown were divided, and we would be swept away by an angry tide of voters upset about the war in Iraq.
Eh? Who was saying that before 2005? I certainly wasn't. The Conservatives were still a floating wreck under Howard, even if they had finally realised that blowing the crap out of each other wasn't as fun as blowing the crap out of Labour.
LFaT, the comments in my comments box have died with the switch away from blogger, but I can assure you there were plenty of Tories (and not a few Lib Dems) who were predicting the Iraq war issue would blow Blair out of the water. One muppet even bet me £100... although I haven't heard from him since.
iain ker said:
November 23, 2009 10:34 AM | permalink
Of course, some of us have been saying it ain't over til it's over for some time now
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BSkyBob, mate, it's over. You know it, I know it, we all know it. But if it makes you feel better to carry on believing the unbelievable, then carry on believing.
And while we're on preposterous beliefs got any comments on the below leaked email from the 'world-renowned' University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit.
"I've just completed Mike's Nature [the science journal] trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie, from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline."
I know you like to cut and paste so, here, let me help.
November 23, 2009 9:36 AM | permalink
Eh? Who was saying that before 2005? I certainly wasn't. The Conservatives were still a floating wreck under Howard, even if they had finally realised that blowing the crap out of each other wasn't as fun as blowing the crap out of Labour.