The UK Independence Party Looks Set To Hand David Cameron Another Embarrassing Defeat | ||
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The UK Independence Party (UKIP) has surged to a 13 point lead in the Rochester & Strood by-election, according to the latest poll. The telephone poll by polling group ComRes found 43% of respondents planned to vote for UKIP next month, with the Conservative Party looking a distant second on 30%. It was widely expected that Rochester & Strood would provide a more difficult challenge for UKIP leader Nigel Farage. Even after UKIP romped home in Clacton to gain its first-ever member of parliament, earlier polls in Rochester put UKIP ahead of the Conservatives by just 9 percentage points. The UKIP lead has now increased to 13 points. News of a slip in the polls will be particularly embarrassing for the Conservatives as they struggle to hang onto a seat they comfortably won with a majority of 10,000 votes at the last election. Mark Reckless, the man who won it for them in 2010, is now standing as UKIP's candidate after a high-profile defection in September. Underlining the stakes, Prime Minister David Cameron made his first trip of a planned five visits to the constituency last week in a concerted effort by the Tory leadership to woo voters back ahead of the by-election. Cameron has promised to "throw everything we can" at the campaign. In a speech to activists last month he said: I would say one other thing to those people – you have got elected with the help of Conservatives, who stuffed envelopes, who walked streets, who knocked on doors, who worked their guts out to get you to be a member of parliament, you have let those people down. We are coming for you in by-elections and we are going to throw everything we can at you. So far this strategy appears to have harmed his chances. Here's another ComRes poll question:
SEE ALSO: An Election In A Tiny English Town Is An Ominous Sign That The European Union Is Coming Apart Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Markets Are Down | ||
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Here's the scorecard, so far: France's CAC 40 is down 0.60% Spain's IBEX is down 0.54% Italy's FTSE MIB is down 0.47% Britain's FTSE 100 is down 0.91% Germany's DAX is down 0.56% In Asia, the Nikkei closed down 0.37% and the Hang Seng is currently down 0.59% S&P futures are up 0.19%, and Dow futures are climbing 0.16% higher. Eurozone flash PMIs are out, it's good news for Germany, which looks like it's struggling a little less, and awful news for France, which increasingly looks like it's in recession. UK retail sales are out at 4:30 a.m. ET, with analysts expecting a 0.1% drop from August to September. Later Thursday morning, in the US there are initial jobless numbers at 8:30 a.m. ET, followed by the house price index half an hour later. At 9:45 a.m. ET, Markit's manufacturing PMI figures will be released, with analysts expecting a 57 print, slightly down from last month. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Good morning! European markets are down early Thursday, after a similar drop in Asia overnight. The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now | ||
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Good morning! Here's what you need to know for Thursday. 1. Much of downtown Ottawa was on lockdown on Wednesday after a gunman, identified as Canadian Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, shot and killed a soldier at the National War Memorial on Parliament Hill. 2. Russian prosecutors have detained four Moscow airport workers, which officials say might be responsible for the plane crash that killed the CEO of French oil giant Total, 63-year-old Christophe de Margerie. 3. The World Health Organization updated its Ebola figures, warning that the virus could infect 10,000 people in West Africa by early December, while a total of 4,877 people have died from Ebola so far. 5. Tesco, the world's second-largest retailer, confirmed on Thursday that its first half pre-tax profit had been overstated by £263 million and announced that chairman Sir Richard Broadbent would step down. 6. US-led airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria have killed 553 people over the last month, with most of the dead being members of the terrorist group. 8. Britain's National Health System says it needs an extra £8 billion a year after warning of a £30 billion annual shortfall that would develop by 2020. 9. Apple said the company will open 25 stores in China within the next two years. And finally... Mark Zuckerberg speaks Mandarin. SEE ALSO: The 10 Most Important Things In The World Archives Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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