Joel Suss, Managing Editor of the British Politics and Policy blog, takes a look at the week in UK blogging.
European elections loom
Having shown blithe disregard for some time, David Cameron has finally broken his silence on UKIP, attacking the rising electoral threat this morning. On The Spectator’s Coffee House blog, Isabel Hardman wonders about his post-European election plan to win back supporters from UKIP.
With anxiety growing in Labour’s camp about the prospect of coming second in the European elections and the narrowing polls for 2015, Mark Ferguson over at LabourList sees a great deal of pressure on the party’s leadership in the coming months.
Meanwhile, Alice Donnelly, citing low voter-turnout and political inequality, argues for compulsory voting for the European and general elections on the UEA blog.
Pfizer-Zeneca
The US pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, has come under political pressure for its proposed takeover bid of the UK’s AstraZeneca. Both Labour and the Conservatives have called for assurances that jobs will be safeguarded without presenting much detail as to how they intend to ensure this, or what a public interest test would look like. John Redwood doesn’t think that government ministers are best placed to decide which takeover will turn out to be good and which bad.
Meanwhile, the Wellcome Trust raised concern about the possible merger in a letter to the Chancellor, George Osborne. Britain’s largest medical research foundation doubts Pfizer’s commitment to investment in Britain.
And finally…
Ed Miliband has made a number of policy announcements over the last several months – capping energy prices, capping rent increases, etc. – that have been shown to be very popular with the electorate. However, Labour’s poll numbers continue to slide. Hopi Sen ponders the riddle of unpopular populism, concluding that it likely has something to do with believability.
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