I’ve been trying to update a few things. Unfortunately, my meddling seems to have meant that Peter the Punter’s column is unavailable for comment! Hopefully everything else should be working fine, and normal service should soon be resumed. PLEASE USE THE LINK HERE FOR COMNMENTS ON PETER’S BRANDiNDEX PREDICTIONS
The Sun Shines on Johnson One highlight in another generally quiet week was the Sun’s support for Deputy Leadership candidate, Alan Johnson. Never underestimate the influence of the old currant bun. He’s this week’s best buy – 2 points at 83.3 The other best values are probably to be found amongst the ‘sells’. Look for those who are having a bit of a quiet time. Hilary Benn fits the bill, especially as he starts from a high perch; Tony Blair…
Who’ll win and who’ll lose from the new way of casting your ballot? In the continued effort to improve voter turnout the Government is staging a number of experiments with different voting methodologies for the May 3rd local elections. Among them is internet voting. These are the different tests involving the internet:- Rushmoor Borough – Remote internet voting the week before polling and on polling day Sheffield City – Remote internet and telephone voting the week before polling Shrewsbury and…
How can green agendas be pursued in the face of onslaughts like this? The News of the world is running a big feature today, part of which is reproduced here, launching a campaign on motoring taxation. This follows a week which has seen the Downing Street website petition on road pricing attract more than a million supporters and comes on the eve of a massive extension of London’s congestion charging zone. The question that all parties have to face is…
Meanwhile the Guardian continues its barrage against Brown The chart shows the changing betting exchange prices in the Labour leadership markets where for the the Environment Secretary, David Miliband, has now taken over as second favourite from the Home Secretary, John Reid. This is a big change and reflects, in part, the heavy media backing that seems to be gathering round, first, the idea of a proper challenge to Gordon and secondly for Miliband himself. The latter has, of course,…
Peter Stands in for Sean Fear The by-elections held this week covered very different parts of the UK. Flintshire is in North Wales, but home to many commuters to Chester, Manchester and Liverpool. Burnley – where two of the by-elections fought this week took place is a former mill town, of the type where the BNP have their biggest following. Huntingdonshire is (rather confusingly) a beautiful part of Cambridgeshire, where John Major would see spinsters cycing to church through the…
How about this for a good Labour leadership bet? The spread betting firm, Cantor Spreadfair, have an interesting market on the Labour leadership which offers a neat profit opportunity on John McDonnnell, if you think he’s going to run and come in second. The firm has created a spread market so that 25pts awarded to the next Labour Party leader and 10pts to the runner up. All others will settle at 0pts. If there is no contest then 25pts are…
Is 4/1 Giuliani now the hot Republican bet? One factor in the UK betting on the 2008 White House race that should be taken into account is that thanks to the tough approach by the US authorities to on-line gambling there is far less money from America being wagered here compared with the 2004 election. With the executives of UK-based bookmakers at risk of arrest while travelling in the US there has been a massive clampdown by the firms to…