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A week tomorrow voters in Old Bexley and Sidcup go to the polls in the second Tory by-election defence of this parliament. So far betting has been fairly limited with less than £40k being traded on Smarkets and Betfair put together. In the former the odds on the Tories have now moved to a 94% chance and I just wonder whether, once again, punters have this wrong. It will be recalled that in June the betting exchange odds on the…

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I have been following politics for long enough to know that the chances of PMs going early is almost always overstated by the media and commentators – something that political gamblers are not doing. Sure BJ’s has had a tricky time but he’s got the chance to remind voters of his authority at PMQs at noon. My own guess is that BJ’s exit will be of his own accord in order to get back to earning several times as much…

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The PM really needs good CON by-election wins It was bound to happen at some point with BJ as with all CON leaders – talk of a no confidence move. I am sure we all know the procedure by now. 15% of the Parliamentary party – 54 MPs – have to send letters to the Chair of the 1992 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, requesting such a vote. Once that total is reached there is a secret ballot of MPs and…

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Putting BJ’s election success into context In the previous post I argued that much of BJ’s electoral success has been based on the weakness of his LAB opponents at the time – Ken Livingstone for the London Mayoralty and Corbyn at the last general election. Above are the Wikipedia table of leader ratings for the then LAB leader ahead of GE2019. I put them up as a reminder of how badly Corbyn was perceived in the final few months. Having…

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In its main leader the Times notes that at the CBI conference “Anxious business leaders deserved a serious speech for serious times.” It goes on: They certainly got such a speech today but it was not delivered by Mr Johnson. The prime minister’s dismal effort had all the hallmarks of something cobbled together on the train to Tyneside. Parts of it appeared to be made up as he went along. Nearly a quarter of his 25-minute speech was taken up with a bizarre…

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I have just picked up this polling by Sanatana ComRes and I find the numbers quite extraordinary. That by a split of 4%% to 32% the pollster found support for an indefinite lockdown for the unvaccinated. I’ve no doubt that if such a measure was proposed for the UK it would very much split the nation but would it be effective and is it fair? Maybe I’m a wish-washy liberal but I find the notion of this sort of pressure,…

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Joe Biden is surely not going to want to put himself forward as candidate for 2024. He is heading for his 80s and that is showing and indeed it might not be that he is able to complete his first term. If Biden steps down before 2024 then Harris will become president and surely she would be the nominee in the forthcoming election. It’s hard to see anything else. My guess is that Biden will seek to carry on in…

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