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Month: November 2011

PB NightHawks Cafe – in London December 1st

PB NightHawks Cafe – in London December 1st

News of another Dirty Dicks gathering for PBers Thanks again to Fat Steve for fixing this but we’ve got another Dirty Dicks gathering scheduled for Thursday December 1st from about 6.30. If you like we can think of this as the PB NightHawks cafe coming alive. Dirty Dicks is a pub directly opposite the main entrance of Liverpool Street station in the City of London. For those who can’t wait and want to continue PB’s big conversation here’s tonight’s PB…

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Poll: LAB voters would prefer being in opposition to a coalition

Poll: LAB voters would prefer being in opposition to a coalition

Would Ed Miliband go along with that? A new poll by TNS-BMRB has come up with what seem to be remarkable figures about the view of Labour voters towards a hung parliament. Over half said that they would rather go into opposition than form a coalition government with either of the other parties. This was, as can be seen from the chart, more than twice the number who would be happy to see a coalition. If Labour do fall short…

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Why did Betfair void all election date bets?

Why did Betfair void all election date bets?

Is the betting exchange politically illiterate? Yesterday the betting exchange, Betfair, closed down it’s election date betting markets and voided all wagers. All money was handed back to punters. The firm’s reasons were set out in an email:- “Dear Michael We are contacting you in reference to bets that you had matched on the – Next UK General Election – Election Date Month & Year Markets. The rules for the above markets were based on the government, in its usual…

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Will Alexander’s Offer Be Enough to Avert Strike Action?

Will Alexander’s Offer Be Enough to Avert Strike Action?

Henry G Manson on the government’s proposal The news today of a significantly improved offer towards public sector pensions means that large-scale strike action on 30 November is now considerably less likely than it has been. If it does prove to be the case then their will be collective sighs of relief across many quarters. From the trade union side the unions will still maintain plans for strike action. This is understandable. They will be keen to wait for the…

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Could the Tories be making Wilson’s 1970 mistake..?

Could the Tories be making Wilson’s 1970 mistake..?

..seriously underestimating their opponent The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee caused quite a few guffaws yesterday following her piece suggesting that Ed Miliband had a good chance of winning the 2015 general election. Since that was written we’ve had two polls – ComRes and the latest YouGov – showing Labour with four and six percent leads, both sufficient even with the planned boundary changes to produce a very healthy majority. The big hope that you hear from the blue team is that…

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The White House Race: A year to go

The White House Race: A year to go

Betfair Politics The Democrat party becomes favourite once again With just one year and one week to go before polling day the sentiment on the Betfair betting exchange, as seen in the chart, is that the Democrats (most probably Obama) are going to hang on to the White House. It’s going to be a tough fight and the president’s re-election chances might be hampered by efforts in a number of states to make it hard for people to register and…

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