Will Lynne Featherstone hold on in Hornsey?

Those who followed yesterday’s thread will have seen a fierce argument between two long-standing contributors, Mark Senior and Gladstone, over whether the Lib Dems will hold onto Hornsey and Wood Green at the next general election.

Mark has laid a bet 5/1 on the possibility that the incumbent who took the seat in 2005, Lynne Featherstone, (pictured above promoting a soup kitchen initiative) will fail to hold onto the seat. So if she does hold on Mark gets £20 but if she doesn’t he has to pay Gladstone £100. Both of them have emailed me to confirm the bet.

The practice of arguments in discussion threads leading to wagers being agreed has become such a common occurrence in recent months that it struck me that we ought to have a way of publicly recording what has been agreed between the parties.

So I have decided to create one of our permanent pages where unsettled wagers like this are recorded for everybody to see.

Can I make it absolutely clear that my role is to provide a facility where people can discuss and argue. I can accept no responsibility for anything to do with the bets and people enter into wagers entirely at their own risk. You have to check out for yourself whether you want to enter into a bet and both parties have got to email me, with full name and address details showing agreement.

As for the bet it will be recalled that Lynne won Hornsey and Wood Green on May 5th 2005 after securing a massive 15% swing to the Lib Dems from Labour. Since then she has repeatedly been tipped as a possible future leader of her party and often appears in the media.

I think Labour are going to find it hard winning back seats like this from Lib Dem incumbents whatever is happening nationally and Mark looks as though he will get his £20. As for the 5/1 odds he has laid on her not doing it – I think that he has been over-generous.

Check out the POLITICALBETTING RECORDED WAGERS page here.

If anybody has other wagers that they would like recorded then please get in touch.

Mike Smithson

Picture – http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynnefeatherstone/536351113/in/photostream/