The Speaker race: the prices get tighter

The Speaker race: the prices get tighter

Comments 0 Comment

Prices as at 6.30 pm. Click for latest updates Betfair’s last price matched has Beckett as favourite With just three days to go before MPs elect their new speaker there’s been a lot of activity on the betting markets with Bercow, Beckett and Young pulling away from the field. On Betfair the “last prices matched” (at 3.10pm) were Beckett 3.55 (5/2), Young 4.3 (3.3/1), Bercow 5 (4/1), Widdecombe 9.8 (8.8/1). The last price matched is often a better indicator than…

Read More Read More

Who’ll get the blame for the expenses blackout?

Who’ll get the blame for the expenses blackout?

Comments 0 Comment

Has redaction just made it a whole lot worse? If anybody thought that the official publication of MPs expense claim forms was going to put an end to the crisis then this morning’s front pages suggest they were wrong. For almost every paper is leading with the same broad story “expenses blackout” – because of the way that most of the documentation is almost totally useless because so much of the key detail been blacked out. All this has done…

Read More Read More

Is the battle now down to Young vs Beckett?

Is the battle now down to Young vs Beckett?

Comments 0 Comment

Where’s the best value in the Speaker betting? With less than four days to go before the summer’s big political betting event is resolved – the battle for the Speakership of the house of commons – I’m becoming increasingly convinced that this is now a contest between Sir George Young and Margaret Beckett. I had a good session this afternoon with a Labour MP who has been taking a close interest in the contest and his observations closely coincided what…

Read More Read More

Will it be payday for Goodwin pension punters?

Will it be payday for Goodwin pension punters?

Comments 0 Comment

PB February 27 2009 Is Fred’s offer good for Gord as well? There’s a story running on BBC news that could be great news for those who bet that the £700,000 a year pension for ex-RBS boss Fred Goodwin would be reduced. It would also be good news for the ministers who had made a big thing about the scale of the payment to the man who had been at the helm of the troubled bank during a critical period….

Read More Read More

Welcome to the parliamentary expenses “Big Bang”

Welcome to the parliamentary expenses “Big Bang”

Comments 0 Comment

But has too much been blacked out? This morning at 6am copies of all the expense claims from all members of the house went online – for all to see. The website is here. This is the data that has been promised for so long and which has already cost a number of political careers – the latest one being Kitty Ussher, the treasury minister, overnight. MPs have had the opportunity to blank out personal details that they did not…

Read More Read More

How many more will follow Kitty?

How many more will follow Kitty?

Comments 0 Comment

Daily Telegraph Another minister bites the dust Kitty Ussher, the Burnley MP who only got her latest ministerial job last week, has quit her Treasury post following more revelations. She’s also announced that she won’t be standing again at the general election. She might be the first of many in the next few days. Tomorrow at 6am sees the official publication of all redacted receipts for all MPs. This story is going to go on. UPDATE: Paul Waugh in the…

Read More Read More

The moment Martin criticised party leaders on expenses

The moment Martin criticised party leaders on expenses

Comments 0 Comment

Do these pics support the Linford thesis? HatTip to Daniel Finkelstein on the Times Comment Central blog for spotting the very different reactions of Cameron and Brown to Michael Martin when he was criticising the party leaders over the expenses issue. Just look at the cutaway shots taken less than a second apart. Brown continues reading some papers while Cameron looks quite disturbed. I just wonder whether this is further evidence of the thesis, discussed here on Monday, by the…

Read More Read More

Is Labour losing the tax and spend argument?

Is Labour losing the tax and spend argument?

Comments 0 Comment

PoliticsHome Does the party need to refine its approach? With policies on tax and spend dominating PMQs and almost the whole political debate at the moment there’s a new poll out from PoliticsHome that could cause Labour strategists to re-think their approach. As can be seen in the chart the overall shares on who is “most honest” were CON 37: LD 28: LAB 16: NONE 28 But when this is broken down those polled describing themselves as non-aligned split: CON…

Read More Read More