Sadly this market doesn’t offer both sides of the bet so I am not interested, if he appeared it would give his opponents so many attack lines. I am also not sure the optics of Robert Jenrick being labelled as a traitor would be good, it really wouldn’t be a cunning stunt by Robert Jenrick. After her departure from Strictly Come Dancing I am mulling about backing Tess Daley at 8/1 to appear in the next series of Celebrity Traitors…
Even before Kemi Badenoch performed a political penectomy on Robert Jenrick I was dubious about the long term wisdom of Robert Jenrick defecting to Reform. He’s was the Tory party’s most effective politician in setting the agenda in a way Kemi Badenoch hasn’t been able to do so. Given Nigel Farage’s inability to work well with other, for example 40% of Reform MPs elected at the 2024 general election are no longer Reform MPs, but there’s many more examples I…
What a morning, I wasn’t expecting this, I thought Robert Jenrick wouldn’t defect as he would bide his time and look to remove Badenoch after the May elections. This certainly strengthens Kemi Badenoch’s position in the short term and will blunt any Jenrick defection. I might laugh so much I might injure myself if Nigel Farage now stops Jenrick defecting to Reform. Long term this might be sub-optimal for Kemi Badenoch, having previously spoken to people close to the Tory…
My knowledge of Iran is limited to what I read about its history and the Iranian heritage people I know so my comments should be seen in that light. It has been a sub-optimal few years for the leaders Iran, the leadership of their proxy Hezbollah have been eradicated, the regime has been impotent as first the Americans assassinated Qasem Soleimani, the Supreme Leader’s right hand man, then the Great Satan and Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear sites so they have…
Last week I noted that Sir Keir Starmer KC is using humour against his opponents and he has continued this week as well, I hope we get to see more of this side of Starmer, I am a strong believer in using humour to win people over and the use of the occasional innuendo also helps, people like smut. There’s a reason why we teach our children The Miller’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer at school. That story got me hooked…
During my lifetime I have been conditioned to expect nothing but Labour landslides in Wales, so I struggle to comprehend a poll that potentially shows Labour could finish fifth in Wales but there’s now enough evidence to suggest it really could happen in the way Labour were stramashed by the SNP, areas that were an electoral oasis for Labour end up becoming electoral deserts. Rhun ap Iorwerth, leader of Plaid Cymru, is overseeing something special, he might end up saying…
TSE
Wales has long been a Labour fiefdom. Keir Hardie was first elected in 1900 in Merthyr Tydfil as Independent Labour and with three others became the party’s first official MPs in 1908. Many Valleys constituencies, such as Caerphilly, have an unbroken record of Labour winning at Westminster elections. As someone with family in this part of Wales, it became ingrained that these were Labour areas (for example, I know many people didn’t actually want the Senedd but voted for it…