Will more than half the cities vote NO on May 3rd? In just two and a half weeks voters in ten cities across England have a chance to vote YES or NO to change the structure of local government in their areas by bringing in US-style elected mayors. This was one of the big ideas in the Conservative manifesto at the general election and the party has been working hard to promote the idea. Cameron, himself, has becoming closely associated…
Why are punters shunning the Labour standard bearer? JUST TEN pounds has been placed on Ken Livingstone to win the London Mayoral election since Siobhan Benita entered the frame according to Ladbrokes. Whilst Siobhan Benita’s odds tumbled the bookies didn’t register a single bet for Ken Livingstone as his odds drifted out to 5/2. The trend has been bucked however and one brave punter has staked £10 on the Labour candidate – whilst Benita racks up thousands of pounds in…
What about the 5/1 that she’ll come third? The unlikely campaign for the London Mayoralty by ex-top civil servant Siobhan Benita, continues to attract media attention with features today in the Mail on Sunday, Indy and the Observer almost all of it positve. In terms of column inches she’s easily out-performing the LDs, the Greens and all the others in the race bar Ken/Boris and this bodes well for her in the final 18 days of campaigning. Clearly she’s running…
I am having the day off and there’s not that much happening Mike Smithson
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…
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…
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…
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…