Johnson’s failure to apologise for party-gate is making matters worse

Johnson’s failure to apologise for party-gate is making matters worse

Surely after the move is by the Metropolitan Police against an initial 20 for their participation in lockdown parties then Johnson is making things worse for himself and his government by his defiant refusal to accept that wrongdoing took place. What this is doing is keeping the issue alive and getting even more media coverage. We saw in December and January how this impacted on the polls and his current strategy is dangerous for his future political career. Why not…

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Sunak still favourite for next CON leader but only a 20% chance

Sunak still favourite for next CON leader but only a 20% chance

There’s been very little betting reaction to the latest news of the party gate fines and we are going to have to wait until we know what is going to happen to Johnson. It is still an evens chance that his exit date will be 2024 or later. Rishi has had a bit of a rough ride in the next CON leader betting but this now appears to have settled down. I’m starting to think that Sunak’s time has passed…

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It’s almost certain now that Johnson won’t be fined by end of March

It’s almost certain now that Johnson won’t be fined by end of March

The big political news today has of course been the fines issued by police for those who attended gatherings in breach of the lockdown regulations in place in 2020. This, of course, follows the so-called “partygate” revelations. Although Johnson appears to have not been included it does raise serious questions over some of his assurances to the Commons that everything that happened then was in line with the regulations that were then in force. If so then how come so…

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The next election: CON winning most seats & votes but Starmer PM?

The next election: CON winning most seats & votes but Starmer PM?

How punters currently see the next general election Currently, according to the betting markets, there is a 73% chance that the election will take place in 2024. The Tories winning most votes is rated as 70% chance with the betting odds on most seats at 58%. No overall majority is seen as the 51% favourite to be the outcome with a CON majority at 36%. As to seats it is a 33% betting chance that the Tory seat total will…

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New French Presidential poll has Le Pen just 6% behind

New French Presidential poll has Le Pen just 6% behind

in less than 2 weeks time there will be the first round of voting in the French presidential election which decides which two of the 12 contenders go through to the final two a fortnight later. Until now we have tended to focus on the first round polling on the assumption that this is going to be a rematch of what happened in 2017 with Macron facing Le Pen. As can be seen from the chart 5 years ago Macron…

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A “baldie” to succeed Boris as CON leader – previous ones haven’t done well

A “baldie” to succeed Boris as CON leader – previous ones haven’t done well

Is DefSec Wallace a good bet? Having been bald myself since my mid-thirties I’ve always been conscious of suggestions that it could be a limiting factor in a political career. In the very early days of PB the Tories were onto their second bald leader in succession – IDS . He replaced Hague after the GE2001 disaster for the party and became the only CON leader in modern times to be booted out before he had even faced a general…

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How the pandemic impacted the UK

How the pandemic impacted the UK

For me it seems like only the other day but earlier on this week was the second anniversary of Boris Johnson introducing the first lockdown and I was intrigued by this polling by Ipsos. Unsurprisingly there’s very little desire any future lockdowns. The most intriguing thing for me was that 42% of the public think the UK handled the pandemic well compared to other countries whilst 27% disagree. This suggests the government might be able to campaign on their Covid-19…

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We have crossover in the “Next PM” betting

We have crossover in the “Next PM” betting

Starmer now edges it over Sunak By any measure this has been a bad week for the Chancellor. His big statement and some basic PR stumbles have seen punters move away from the former hot favourite and Starmer now tops the market by default. Rishi simply hasn’t looked like Number 10 material with things like the ludicrous picture of him trying to fill up a small Kia car with petrol when it turned out that the shot was not new…

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