..or is Labour using the threat to get its core vote out? Towards the end my conversation with Kevin Maguire on Radio 4’s “The Westminster Hour” the question arose of how the BNP would do in the Glasgow NE by election on Thursday. This followed reports that Labour officials have been telling the the media that the BNP might come third? But just how likely is this given that the BNP has never really got a foot-hold north of the…
Would he have visited today if there was any doubt? One of my biggest betting errors of 2008 was to change my initial view of the Glenrothes by-election. My first thought was that Gordon Brown and Sarah would not have joined the campaign if those running the Labour operation had not advised that victory was in the bag. Straightforward thinking and I bet accordingly. Then, just three days before the vote, I got a call from a Scottish political contact…
Politics.co.uk Would this mean a by-election in South Shields? There’s a story runnnig, which appears to be an exclusive, on the Politics.co.uk website suggesting that David Miliband has accepted” the top EU foreign affairs role that he was being tipped and, indeed, is current favourite in the betting. Well done to Wibbler on the previous thread for the spot. According to the site’s Emmeline Saunders the information has come from “a Labour source” and that this could all be announced…
Is Labour really less certain than it was? With the by-election in Glasgow North East due to take place a week on Thursday there’s been an easing of the Labour price and a tightening of the SNP in the battle to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Michael Martin. Quite what’s driving this is not clear but the two leading contenders had a lot of activists out over the weekend and maybe the SNP are starting to get…
Is he right about the SNP’s chances? Last night I had a slot on the George Galloway show on TalkSport and we had a good conversation about the current political betting markets. We got on to next month’s Glasgow NE by election when he surprised me by tipping the SNP. Galloway is from Glasgow and was a Labour MP for one of its seats. He must know the workings of the city’s Labour machine inside out so I take his…
Wikipedia Are there any chances of an upset? At last we have it – the date for the Glasgow NE by election to fill the vacancy created when former speaker, Michael Martin, stepped down as an MP in June. It’ll take place on November 12th which is just over a year after Labour’s stunning victory in Glenrothes when extraordinarily the total of votes cast for the party exceeded that at the general election. Clearly all the parties, particularly Labour, have…
How’ll the “Man in the White Suit” affect the race? As predicted here a month ago the “Man in the White Suit”, ex BBC-reporter and victor as an independent at Tatton in 1997, Martin Bell has got involved with the next big political betting event in the UK – the mayoral by-election in Bedford on October 15 with an electorate of 100,000. We’ve reported already on the visit of David Cameron and the Tory open primary to select their candidate…
But isn’t 4/5 looking like good value for money? According to Ladbrokes this afternoon there’s been a fair bit of activity on their Bedford mayoral by election market but they have not laid a single bet on the Tories. As a result the Lib Dems have moved in from 2/1 to 5/4 while the Tories have eased from 1/2 to 4/5. Labour is still at 10/1. Clearly the manner of Parvez Akhtar’s selection on Monday has not been welcomed in…