politicalbetting.com

Should he have got a better job for fixing Gord’s coronation? In the immediate aftermath of Jack Straw’s appointment as Brown’s campaign manager there was a widespread assumption that the man who has been both Home secretary and Foreign Secretary would be in line a top ministerial post. Following his hugely effective operation that closed off other potential contenders and then stopped any challenge being mounted the chances of Straw getting something really big appeared to be a near certainty….

Read More Read More

Will Shirley Williams be able to “re-rat”? Winston Churchill famously coined the phrase “Anyone could “rat” but it took a certain ingenuity to “re-rat” after being elected as a Conservative MP, switching to the Liberal four years later, and then re-joining the Tories. With the news that Gordon Brown has been in conversation with Shirley Williams the question arises – will she be able to pull off what Churchill did and “re-rat”. For in 1981 Shirley, along with Roy Jenkins,…

Read More Read More

How will it be different next Wednesday? Blair’s final PMQs, as some have observed, was very strange and you almost thought that the occasion would bring tears to his eyes. Yet what a star he has been and how formidable an opponent he has been for the five Tory leaders and three Lib Dems one who have faced him each week. None of them, even Hague at his best, has every really been his match. It’s Tony huge emotional intelligence…

Read More Read More

Denis Healey on David Owen…“The good fairy gave him thick dark locks, matinee idol features and a frightening intellect. ‘Unfortunately, the bad fairy also made him a shit.” Mike Smithson

Will the Tories have an uncomfortable final Blair PMQs? However much Tories try to spin it the defection of Quentin Davies is a major coup for Gordon Brown on the eve of his arrival at Number 10. It also provides some great ammunition for Tony Blair for tomorrow’s final PMQs. The Tory leader had no doubt planned to focus on Harriet Harman’s mixed messages over Iraq and this will spike his guns a bit. Cameron will be furious and he…

Read More Read More

Agingjb by a landslide – top 3 well clear of the field Following Harriet Harman’s nail-biting win in the the Labour Deputy Leadership, the results of the PBC Competition have now been finalised – detailed results are available here. Only five entrants tipped Harman to win, and four of them lead the competition rankings. Agingjb (post 45) had a clear win in the contest, with a score of just 7.68 (0.57 for the winner and 7.11 for the first preferences),…

Read More Read More

When does agreeing your sorry mean you are not sorry? On the first full day of Labour’s new team the main political story is how Harriet Harman is dealing with comments during the campaign in which she appeared to suggest that Labour should say sorry for Iraq. This is how the Guardian is reporting what she said in the Newsnight debate on May 29th: “….the candidates were asked: “Do you think the party should say sorry for what has happened…

Read More Read More