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BETFAIR, THE US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, AND THE GAMBLING COMMISSION

BETFAIR, THE US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, AND THE GAMBLING COMMISSION

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Let me begin with an apology to the Gambling Commission.   I have often badmouthed them, here and elsewhere, but a long conversation recently with one of their staff has caused me to revise my views.   The subject was principally Betfair’s long delay in settling various markets in connection with the recent US Presidential Elections.   The Commission cannot intervene in individual disputes but it does hold a brief to ‘regulate commercial gambling in Great Britain in partnership with…

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As Trump struggles to hang on Biden extends his favourability lead over Trump to 9%

As Trump struggles to hang on Biden extends his favourability lead over Trump to 9%

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Gallup is reporting this afternoon that President-elect Joe Biden’s favourability rating has risen six percentage points to 55% since the election compared with his final pre-election reading. At the same time, President Donald Trump’s favourability has edged down three points to 42%. Biden’s current rating is the highest it has been since February 2019, two months before he declared his candidacy for president, when it was 56%. Trump’s latest favourability falls short of the highest of his presidency, 49% in April,…

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Would the real Keir Starmer please stand up?

Would the real Keir Starmer please stand up?

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2020 has not been short of challenges. Covid-19, the ensuing economic fall-out and the final stages of Brexit have been playing out. By and large, the government has proven unequal to the challenge. That is not just my opinion, but that of the public at large.  Just 34% of the public were satisfied with the government’s handling of Covid-19 in the last YouGov survey on the matter and 52% of the public disapprove of the government’s record to date with just 27% approving….

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Hatchings, Matchings and Dispatchings.

Hatchings, Matchings and Dispatchings.

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2020 will be an unlamented year, known for a long time as the year of the coronavirus. Hopefully 2021 will be better, if the various vaccines and Brexit permit, and some resurgence of normal activity returns. Indeed just as the excesses of the roaring Twenties followed the Spanish Flu, we may well see a year of hedonistic excess. I do not wish to dwell long on the “excess deaths”, a subject thrashed over fairly heavily by both amateur and professional…

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In other news

In other news

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What else has been happening recently that deserves more attention than it is getting? We don’t need to worry about public sector debt – yet During the Covid era, Britain’s public sector debt has risen at a giddying rate.  Public sector net borrowing is estimated to have been £22.3 billion in October 2020, £10.8 billion more than in October 2019, which is both the highest October borrowing and the sixth-highest borrowing in any month since monthly records began in 1993. …

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The Masque of the Red Death

The Masque of the Red Death

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Who are you planning to kill this Christmas? Is there an aged aunt who you haven’t seen for a while? Perhaps your parents? If you’re young enough, maybe you have your grandparents in your sights. After all, it is the time to spread peace, goodwill and Covid-19 to all mankind. But, I hear you protest, you have no intention of spreading any disease and you would be horrified to think that you might. Of course you don’t and of course you would be.   And that’s…

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Increased geography. Devolution, independence, and Brexit

Increased geography. Devolution, independence, and Brexit

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I have been a disappointment to many people.  One niche group emerged in 2012, when my previous firm, Pinsent Masons, merged with the largest Scottish firm McGrigors.  For some time afterwards, whenever I met one of my new Scottish partners, I could see the faint shrinking when they realised that, despite my given name, I’m as English as they come.  They were always kind to the afflicted, of course, but a sense of the closest kinship would take much more…

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The Fall of The West

The Fall of The West

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I sometimes wonder if Francis Fukuyama regrets his 1992 book ‘The End of History’, written in the heady aftermath of the Cold War. It is commonly believed to have argued that mankind’s ideological evolution had ended, and the universalisation of liberal democracy was its endpoint. In truth, this does him a disservice: he framed his original essay as a question, not a statement, and was careful to say that totalitarian “events” could still happen in future but democracy would become…

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