Given that President Hugo Chávez’s Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) lost its two-thirds majority in the September 26 legislative elections, it is pretty likely that the ruling party is going to face a tougher time in passing some of the more radical elements of its socialist reforms. In addition, the 2012 presidential vote is… [Read more]

This is it! This is it! Only two and a half days till the UK election! Don’t worry, this is not a party political broadcast. In the interests of preserving Business Monitor International (BMI)’s impartial status, I will not endorse any party ahead of the election. What I will do is offer a brief and… [Read more]

In any Country Risk analyst’s tool kit, opinion polls play a very important role. Finding a large enough data series for serious analysis though is often a problem. However, for the UK there is hardly a better treasure trove of information than Anthony Wells’ excellent website UK Polling Report, where he has collated polling data… [Read more]

The BBC marked the 30th anniversary of the election of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by re-running its coverage of the 1979 election on its BBC Parliament television channel on Bank Holiday Monday (The coverage is still available to download for UK viewers over the next week at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074yz8) Watching the material helped crystallise… [Read more]