Sunday papers round-up

Sunday papers round-up

Stories from today’s newspapers Firstly, very best wishes to Mike for a speedy recovery and thanks to everyone for their support and comments on the previous thread. I’ll aim to keep pb running in Mike’s absence, but would welcome any guest articles that people might like to contribute on any aspect of UK/international politics or betting, or indeed anything relevant on finance and economics. In particular, would any of the site’s many US experts like to contribute a beginner’s guide…

Read More Read More

Message from Mike

Message from Mike

I was admitted to hospital overnight (nothing too serious) but I’m likely to be out of action for a few days. If Paul Maggs or my son Robert want to post or just launch open threads that will keep the discussions going that will be great.

How does Hillary deal with the Oprah effect?

How does Hillary deal with the Oprah effect?

Will the Winfrey endorsement help in the battle for women voters? This weekend the talk show host and arguably the second most famous woman in America, Oprah Winfrey, is joining Barack Obama on a three state campaign tour in a move that seems to have been designed to eat into Hillary Clinton’s commanding poll position amongst women voters. She’ll speak in support of the black senator from Illinois at mass campaign rallies in three of the states to decide first…

Read More Read More

Sean Fear’s Friday Slot

Sean Fear’s Friday Slot

Why Can’t Labour Motivate Its Identifiers? Support for the parties, as measured by opinion polls, ebbs and flows over time, but one thing remains constant. More people identify with the Labour Party, even at times of great unpopularity, then identify with the Conservatives. The latest Communicate Research Poll is a good example of this. The Conservatives lead Labour by 40% to 27% in terms of voting intention, yet Labour lead the Conservatives by 28% to 24% in terms of voter…

Read More Read More

Political betting feature in the Financial Times

Political betting feature in the Financial Times

FT REPORT A finger on the political pulse by Ross Tieman, Financial Times – Published: Dec 07, 2007 Mike Smithson is on a roll. Britain’s foremost political spread betting aficionado is profiting from the opportunity bonanza offered by political upsets in the UK and the US presidential race. “It’s been a great autumn,” he says. “I have got a hefty wadge that has been transferred into my bank account. Since October, I have done about £6,000 [of profits].” You can’t…

Read More Read More

Will limiting liberty lose Labour’s liberals?

Will limiting liberty lose Labour’s liberals?

What’s the political impact of extending the detention limits? Those papers that cover the government’s latest plan to extend the detention without trial period won’t make comfortable reading this morning at the Home Office and Number 10. The Home Secretary’s paper proposing a two week extension to 42 days has triggered off bitter protests and there must be a possibility that it will fail to get through the commons. According to the Guardian the plan “appeared to be foundering last…

Read More Read More

Did you get on the super-slimmer’s band-wagon?

Did you get on the super-slimmer’s band-wagon?

Is he really the man the Democrats fear most? It was back in mid-August that we first looked at the chances of GOP contender and former Governor of Arkansas, Mick Huckabee. At the time the unique element in his background was that he was born and brought up in the same small town as Bill Clinton. Since then Huckabee, whose dramatic slimming story (see picture), has endeared him to many in the most obese country in the world, has gone…

Read More Read More

YouGov reports an 11% SNP lead in Scotland?

YouGov reports an 11% SNP lead in Scotland?

Could this point to disproportionate Labour losses in the General Election? A main reason why my preferred Westminster general election spread bet is on the number of Labour, rather than Conservative, seats is what might happen north of the border where the party could have several more seats at risk than the conventional GB-based seat calculators are suggesting. This is reinforced by a new YouGov poll on voting intention for the Scottish parliament which suggests that there has been a…

Read More Read More