Election 20
News
More Labour MPs to stand down at election
Former minister Doug Touhig has announced he is to retire from the Commons.
Meet the candidate
Apprenticed in all trades
Over 20 years elapsed between Liz Leffman joining the SDP and running for Parliament as a Lib Dem, but in between, she gained key skills in management and the voluntary sector – and built up a business of her own
Lords round-up
Call for tougher limits on poll spending
Excessive spending by political parties in marginal seats is a "corruption or the political process," the House of Lords has heard.
Parliamentary comment
Tributes paid to MP as thoughts turn to by-election
Parliamentary researcher Matt Mulley examines the case for a by-election following the death of North West Leicestershire MP David Taylor.
News
Hesford to stand down at election
A Labour MP who resigned last year as a PPS in protest at the behaviour of the attorney general has announced he will not contest the next general election.
Reflections
Blood is thicker than Labour
Although Derek Wyatt came within a hair’s breadth of ministerial office, he now finds the ratio of personal sacrifice to political glory too low to stand again
Commons round-up
MPs should start 'dialogue' over election counts
MPs concerned about when votes in the next general election should talk to returning officers in their constituency.
Lords round-up
Postal voting defended by 'gobsmacked' minister
A "vast proportion" of postal votes are fraudulent, according to the Conservative Party.
Commons round-up
Bercow lends support to election night count
The Speaker of the House of Commons has said local councils should count the votes at the general election just after the polls close.
Meet the candidate
The circle-dancing democrat
In fighting the unorthodox geography of York Outer, James Alexander believes his fresh ideas and commitment to ‘pavement politics’ will be key assets
An up-to-date and sortable list of MPs who have confirmed they plan to retire at the 2010 general election
A searchable guide to the headline Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat policies in key policy areas
A sortable list of key policy and campaign documents released by political parties ahead of the general electionProf Paul Whiteley: Handling the economy
In our monthly surveys for the British Election Study over the last year, we have asked the following questions: How do you think the present government has handled the financial crisis? And how do you think a Conservative government would have handled the current financial crisis?
There are three interesting features of the chart; the first is that Labour lost its advantage over the Conservatives in perceptions of handling the crisis at the start of 2009 and has not regained it.
The second is the fact that the parties are quite close together in the public's mind, with Labour bouncing back a bit in September of this year.
The third is that the members of the public who think that the parties have handled the crisis well are rather modest in number, never reaching above about a third of the respondents.
The percentages who think that the parties handled it badly are not shown, but they exceed those in the chart by a considerable margin for both parties.
This may be one of the reasons why the outcome of the election is still uncertain, with the Conservative lead narrowing in recent polls.
Faced with the biggest economic crisis since the 1930s, voters are not sure that either party is capable of handling it effectively.
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