Daily catch-up: Hislop the Younger, by-election polling and all about the olden days

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1. The world needs to know that there was a time when Ian Hislop looked like this, as Robert Hutton says. Hutton particularly likes the tie. I cannot get over the glasses. James Vaughan thought it was a Ben Elton-Michael Gove hybrid.

2. Polling update. ComRes last night published a phone poll of Rochester and Strood, where Mark Reckless, the Conservative defector to UKIP is fighting a by-election on 20 November:

UKIP 43%, Con 30%, Lab 21%, Green 3%, Lib Dem 3%.

The 13-point UKIP lead is higher than the nine-point lead reported by Survation in the days after Reckless’s defection. My predictions are not always right, but I said I didn’t think the Tories could win, because the hostility to conventional politics is too strong. On Sunday I said I thought new polls would show UKIP further in the lead and that, by the time of the by-election, no one would expect the Tory candidate (the winner of the primary election will be announced tomorrow) to win. The idea that this by-election is one that David Cameron has to win or face a leadership challenge will fade.

To support my point, ComRes found that 62 per cent of voters in the constituency agreed: “This by-election is a good opportunity for me to show David Cameron and the Conservative Party how unhappy I am with their government.”

But I think that the Tories will win it back at the general election next year.

3. My full, detailed and balanced review of yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions is here.

4. Thanks to my former colleague Guy Adams for this:

“Just gave talk to son's class about my job. Me: ‘Can anyone tell me what a newspaper is?’ Child: ‘Something old people read.’”

Talking about the old days, I was grateful to Dan Brooks of The New York Times for this remarkable piece of information:

“There once was a time when you could not play any song ever recorded, instantly, from your phone.”

5. A couple of late nominations from Alan Robertson for Top 10 Misleading Definitions: Nappy: in need of a brief snooze. Bargains: the mark-up on alcohol sold in pubs.

My book of Top 10s, Listellany, is available for just £3.49 as a download. My interview with Vanessa Feltz about it on BBC London on Friday is here (at 02.29.50). Meanwhile, Top 10 Songs Named After Days of the Week has been added to the Listellany website.

6. And finally, thanks to Tom Freeman for this:

“We must do whatever it takes to show people that this man is a Judas.”

“Well you can’t just throw money at the problem.”

“Um, actually…”