The betting markets move against the Tory mayoral contender On the face of it the 2008 race for the London mayor has everything. Two candidates who are known simply by their first names as well as a high profile Lib Dem; what looks like quite a tight contest and the knowledge that voting takes place in just 16 weeks time so you won’t be locking up your cash for long. Yet compared with the 2000 and 2004 elections punter interest…
Should you be betting against all the current front-runners? With White House nomination races continuing to dominate the political betting markets in the UK we are sticking with that this morning. In a round-up of where the Republican race lies after Romney’s emphatic victory in Michigan the Guardian‘s man in DC, Richard Adams, raises the possibility that the eventual winner might not yet be in the race. Under the heading that “only a lunatic or a fool would predict who…
..and what about Hillary after 40% of Dems voted “uncommitted”? Another fascinating night for US primary watchers with Romney doing better than expectations in the GOP race to win with a thumping margin and a worrying result for Clinton in the Democratic election where she was the only main candidate. Most of the pre-election polling had suggested that McCain was running Romney very close in in his home state with at least two firms suggesting that the Arizona senator was…
Or will McCain become an even bigger favourite? It’s Tuesday and that means, for the next month or so at least, that it’s primary time in the US. Today it’s been the voters of Michigan who are having their turn to decide who should occupy the GOP slot. There is voting on the Democratic nominee but no one will take any notice because of the state is in defiance of the party nationally, there has been no campaigning and the…
Will he come out top in Nevada and South Carolina? Like many long-standing Obama backers, I’m sure, my confidence in his ability to do it was shaken by last week’s New Hampshire primary. What concerned me particularly was the way the the ex-President’s spouse was able to galvanise women voters and get them to the polls. This was a major achievement which if replicated across the country could make wininng the nomination a certainty. My Betfair book is reproduced above…
Was it £200,000 well spent Peter? For me Labour-leaning blogger, Paul Linford, sums up Peter Hain’s predicament best – “…the real reason he’s finished is because he spent 200 grand coming fifth behind Harriet Harman in the deputy leadership contest. However things pan out with the donations story, Hain has been living on borrowed political time ever since that dismal result and the only way is down from now on.” To be be prepared to spend that sort of money…
Was action delayed because of the planned November election? With the government having lined up a veteran City executive, Ron Sandler, to run a nationalised Northern Rock there’s been a big downward move on the stock market on the NR share price. The expectation is that if the government steps in then equity investors will suffer. But what is the political price of such a move which has been advocated by the Lib Dem treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, for several…