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The daily catch-up: election forecasts, Tory misrepresentations and living with parents

Half a dozen items from around the internet that caught the eye of our columnist

John Rentoul
Thursday 17 July 2014 15:39 BST
Comments

1. The Polling Observatory forecast of the election: Labour 36.2% Conservatives 35.5% Lib Dems 8.2% That would make Labour the largest party, just on the threshold of a majority.

This is slightly different from a similar projection by Stephen Fisher of Trinity College, Oxford, last week, who forecast that Labour and the Conservatives would have almost exactly the same number of seats in a hung parliament. Both projections try to extrapolate from current opinion polls, based on the average movement of party support in the year before an election. According to Polling Observatory, there has been, on average, a swing of 2.7 percentage points to the government party in the 12 months before elections.

What is interesting is that Labour's forecast is creeping up because the opposition party in the past has tended to lose ground around this time, and Ed Miliband's party is currently holding steady.

2. I have stopped collecting Questions To Which The Answer Is No, but my former colleague Chris Schuler has found a cracker:

"Is poetry the strongest form of protest?"

3. Controversy yesterday over David Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions quoting something Harriet Harman said on Monday:

"People on middle incomes should contribute more through their taxes."

I tried to explain What Harriet Said And What She Meant, and accused the Prime Minister of misrepresenting her in my review of PMQs.

I was pleased that I was supported by two Conservatives. Tim Montgomerie:

"I have no doubt Labour would hike taxes if they won office but Tory misrepresentation of what Harriet Harman said does politics no favours."

And Iain Dale, who was on LBC with Harman at the time, and who did not think he had missed "a story":

"The Prime Minister was somewhat careless with the actualite/overegged the pudding re Harriet Harman's middle class tax comments."

4. A journey through the most disturbing statues of the world. From i100.

5. Map of the Day: the proportion of young people, 25-34, living with their parents. Thanks to Alberto Nardelli and Miroslave Hajnos.

Denmark 1.8%, France 11.5%, UK 14.4%, Italy 46.6%

6. Finally, thanks to Matthew Hancock, the new Business minister, now attending Cabinet, via Chris Heaton-Harris, for this oldie:

"What does an Egyptian Mummy dance to? Rap."

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