Ed miliband

Which David Cameron will take the stage for tonight’s seven-way showdown? Will it be the competent, likeable and reasonable statesman who has steered the economy onto safer ground? Or the tetchy one who calls Ed Miliband a ‘waste of space’ at Prime Minister’s Questions? On Monday, speaking at a lectern outside the door of Number 10, the Prime Minister decided to launch a personal attack on his opposite number rather than make a statesman-like pitch to the electorate. To have mentioned Ed Miliband by name once would have been historic – doing so three times smacked of desperation. listen to ‘David Cameron speech outside Number 10 as Parliament is dissolved’

Yesterday Ed Miliband declared that it was high time the James Bond films moved with the times and cast a woman as the next 007. Although the comments were met with outrage from some of the more traditional Bond fans, the Labour leader can take heart that Camilla Rutherford has picked up his rallying cry. Speaking at Spectator Life‘s third birthday party, the Gosford Park actress urged the producers to cast a female lead. ‘It’s definitely time we had a Jane Bond instead of a James Bond. I think a woman would be great in the role. The only thing is that with a man it can be quite a suave move

Scottish Labour is having no luck in denting the SNP’s support. ComRes/ITV News have released a new poll this evening, which shows a 19 per cent swing to the SNP across the 40 Labour held seats in Scotland. Based on this, the SNP would take 28 of these seats in the upcoming general election. North of the border, ComRes puts the SNP on 43 per cent, Labour on 37, the Tories on 13 and Ukip, the Lib Dems and Greens on two per cent each. The ComRes findings fall in line with the other polls taken in Scotland from Lord Ashcroft and ICM — the latter recently suggested that the SNP would take

Why are the Tories peddling what the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has described as ‘at best unhelpful’, which is the claim that households would be hit with a £3,000 tax bombshell if Ed Miliband becomes Prime Minister? The IFS’ analysis came out earlier today, but this evening George Osborne repeated the claim, saying: ‘Well it’s based on what the Labour party has voted for and what Ed Miliband has said he will do… I am confident that that is based on what the Labour party has voted for in Parliament.’ listen to ‘George Osborne stands by £3,000 Labour tax rise claim’ on audioBoom

Just two weeks ago, senior Conservatives were saying that ‘crossover’ had been reached: that the Tories were ahead in the polls and that the lead would slowly build. Last week, the lead evaporated. Tomorrow, a YouGov/Sunday Times poll puts Labour four points ahead. Cameron’s bizarre pre-resignation on Monday and a rather lacklustre performance in what passed for the television debate on Thursday seems to have had an effect. Sure, they were watched by only 3 million people vs. 10 million for the 2010 debates – but the word gets out. Jeremy Paxman performed very well, Ed Miliband quite well, Cameron less well. And yes, that’s the Cameron already talking about his retirement, as if

Ed Miliband used last night’s election interview with Jeremy Paxman as an opportunity to blast the Murdoch press. The Labour leader told viewers that he had stood up to Rupert Murdoch, and would continue to do so in spite of whatever bad publicity is thrown at him as a result. However, this appeared to come as news to Murdoch. The media mogul took to Twitter in a bid to set the record straight, claiming that the Labour leader only had gushing praise for him when they met the one time. Thanks for 2 mentions, Ed Miliband. Only met once for all of 2 minutes when you embarrassed me with over the top flattery. —