As regular PBers will know I have a significant stake in Sunak’s future following a £20 bet I placed with Ladbrokes in November 2019 when Rishi was just a junior minister. The quoted odds of him being next PM were 200/1 increased by the firm’s “odds boost” to 250/1. I know that some other PBers are also on at those odds following the post by Phillip Thompson. This is a massive day for Sunak and generally, budgets get received well…
Welcome to the first Smarkets “Budget Bingo” betting created by Shadsy who used to be at Ladbrokes. This was one of his specialty bets which he has now created for his new employer which, of course, is a betting exchange. The full list of possible phrases or words that Sunak might use is here. These are the market rules: This market relates to Rishi Sunak’s Autumn Budget speech on 27 October Sunak must use the exact word or phrase as…
At some stage this has to be implemented. There is overwhelming public backing as the polling shows and it would give a strong signal of the Government’s intent. I am writing this on a packed Thameslink train where barely 25% of passengers are a wearing masks. It is as though the public have taken a signal from Ministers that the pandemic is over. Surely on all public transport there has to be a strong rule on mask wearing. The pictures…
In 1940/41 when the German Bombing of British cities was at its height one of the big rules that everybody had to follow was the blackout. Any little light from a building, it was thought, could help enemy pilots to work out whether they were above populated areas where they could cause maximum damage. The streets of the big cities were patrolled by blackout wardens and anyone not following the rules could find themselves facing criminal charges. Everything was about…
Ministers wouldn’t want to look so small and mean-minded Mike Smithson
At the weekend I got my “booster” jab and unlike my earlier two vaccinations, it was the Pfizer one and not Astrazeneca which was given to tens of millions of Brits like me in the first waves of the vaccination programme. Having a genetic condition that has led to two pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in the lung) in the past I have been very aware of the risks posed by COVID and have been ultra-careful in my behaviour. I know…
The Greens might need to stop being seen as a single issue party if they want to have more than one MP. YouGov have carried out some polling into the Greens which can be found here. The above tweets are a small section of the findings, the entire Twitter thread is worth a read. We learn things like the voters currently have a more favourable opinion of the Greens than the other main parties which might explain why the Greens…
When I saw this betting market from Smarkets on Trump creating or affiliating with a new political party my reaction was why would Trump create or join a new political party? The Republican Party in its current form is the political equivalent of catamites that will do anything to service Donald Trump’s wishes and happiness or do his bidding. During his tenure as President there wasn’t an outrage most of the Republican Party wouldn’t defend or excuse, culminating in his…