Give your favourite blogs the recognition they deserve The new Total Politics magazine is compiling an annual guide to political blogging in the UK, and are running a competition to find the UK’s top 100 political blogs. Full details can be found here, but the basics are as follows: 1) Choose your top 10 (must be 10) from the Total Politics blog directory 2) Number them in order, with #1 being your favourite and so forth 3) Send them, along…
Could viral videos like this start to have an impact? Over the past couple of weeks there’s been a bit of a move back to John McCain on the betting markets. Obama’s overseas trip, particularly the mass rally in Berlin, has not gone down well and the presumptive GOP nominee has been deploying what appears to be an effective attack strategy against his Democratic opponent. But still, I believe, McCain is weak on one of the things he can do…
What are the chances of him still being there on election day? Probably the best long-term market where we can plot trends on betting attitudes to Gordon’s survival is the one from Betfair on the line-up of party leaders at the general election. When it was opened, in June 2007, Ming Campbell was in the mix. He’s now moved on and the “runner” that reflects views on the PM’s survival is the Brown/Cameron price. Surprisingly this market has not attracted…
Henry G Manson looks at the record to assess the chances One of the first things sports punters try to assess is recent form. In political betting this information is scarce and can make for a punting minefield. However last year’s Labour deputy leadership results provide a form guide of sorts for a leadership contest this side of an election. Despite recent exuberance, it doesn’t look at all good for David Miliband who is leading the charge from the Blairite…
Are her V-P chances really better than 10%? Maybe I am being a mug, maybe I have contributed too much already to Shadsy at Ladrokes and other bookies’ profits on the Democratic V-P nomination, maybe I should have stuck with my self-denying ordinance not to throw any more money at this issue but I’ve just placed a bet at 10/1 on the former first lady. Partly it was the discussion on the overnight thread, partly it was reading the latest…
Or is it one more thing that they can be accused of dithering on? There’s lots in the papers this morning about the apparent plan to have a stamp duty “holiday” on property purchases of less than £250k in a effort to boost the depressed housing market. The problem is that raising the possibility without taking immediate action can have precisely the opposite effect – those people on the point of buying a house might be deterred for a few…
Are you best to stay out of it? Two months ago I posted here that I was pulling out of the betting on who would share the tickets with Barack Obama and John McCain because it was so difficult for anybody to who out who was going to be chosen. I’ve got several hundred pounds at risk and I am convinced that I’m going to be a loser. I’ve managed to keep away from the betting apart from a brief…
Would PM Miliband get the same fawning treatment? Exactly a year ago today the Guardian asked breathlessly whether any previous incoming prime minister had had such a first month in office having to deal with one “crisis” after another. To recap there had been some storms, a failed terrorist attack in Glasgow and some animals had got ill. Out of the ordinary? To a limited degree but nothing on the scale that several other incoming prime ministers had had to…