Saturday evening open thread
I am having the day off and there’s not that much happening Mike Smithson
Dare Dave re-shuffle George?
Is the bigger risk keeping him at No 11 or easing him out? These last four weeks have not been George Osborne’s finest. It began with a Budget which was leaked to such an extent that there was precious little for him to say on the day that was a pleasant surprise. Consequently, the coverage focussed on those parts that were unpleasant surprises, especially where these appeared to hit people on modest incomes at a time when the super-rich were…
PB NightHawks on the day that Salmond screwed it
Should he have said that the Economist will “rue the day”? Perhaps the most surprising feature of the Economist Skintland affair has been the unexpected second rate response by Alex Salmond. Rather than using it as a peg start to deal with the issues raised the SNP leader got on his high horse and he warned that the magazine would rue the day for portraying Scotland in a poor light. Yet he failed even to start to address what will…
Osborne now 14-1 EVER to become Prime Minister
In spite of current problems this seems a good bet After all his tribulations since the budget William Hill now make George Osborne a 14/1 shot EVER to become Prime Minister. This seems a remarkable price given that the same bookmaker is offering a skinny 9/2 against George being next Tory leader. In the current circumstances it is hard to see a grateful Tory party turning to George once Dave has stood aside to spend more time with his DVD…
Will being called ‘Skintland’ boost the YES or NO campaigns?
What’ll the “Economist cover” do to the referendum? Above is a version of what’s said to be the front cover of the latest Economist which hasn’t going down too well in nationalist circles overnight north of the border. As can be seen Scotland has been renamed “Skintland“; the country’s capital becomes “Edinborrow“; the Orkneys and Shetlands are dubbed the “Orkward” and “Shutlands” islands while the Lowlands region is termed “Loanlands“. Amongst the other re-namings are “Grumpians” for Grampians, “Aberdown” for…
Over to you PBNightHawks
Welcome again to the “cafe” This is the place for Britain’s best political conversation. @MikeSmithsonOGH
Ken’s mayoral chances slump to 21 percent on Betfair
Betfair Politics Three weeks to ago and punters flee Ken According to those risking their money on the Betfair London mayor market Ken’s Chances are now just 21% based on the bets being traded this afternoon. This is almost a record low. At the same time Boris’s odds get tighter. It’s hard to argue with the market judgement. @MikeSmithsonOGH
Can Labour meet the 2012 Rallings local elections target?
Will 600+ gains underpin EdM’s leadership? We are in that silly time that we see every April when the parties try to tell us how badly they are going to do in the May locals while the academic specialists who monitor this closely set out what they think we should expect. A central figure in this is Professor Colin Rallings (The R of the famous Rallings & Thrasher partnership who do thing like work out the “official general election notionals”…