In The Bleak Midwinter

In The Bleak Midwinter

“Tis the season to be jolly careful”. The Prime Minister’s default is always to go for the quip or memorable phrase. It is infuriating when so much is at stake. The other clear message is: don’t go to a restaurant or pub, unless you are on your own or with your family. If your son comes home from university, you are two households and on no account must you go out for a meal together. But you can go to…

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As time runs out in the Brexit transition YouGov has “Brexit Wrong” once again with a double digit lead

As time runs out in the Brexit transition YouGov has “Brexit Wrong” once again with a double digit lead

And LAB will now back a deal in the Commons With things being dominated by the American presidential election we have hardly looked at the ongoing effort by the government to come to an agreement before the the end of the Brexit transition at the on New Year’s Eve. If that doesn’t happen the UK has no deal and is in very uncertain territory. In a new move tonight LAB has said that it will back the deal that emerges…

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Trump finally agrees that the Biden transition can begin but the Betfair market remains open

Trump finally agrees that the Biden transition can begin but the Betfair market remains open

The big overnight news from Washington is that Trump has finally allowed the Joe Biden transition to begin which means that a whole series of formal steps and budgets can be authorised so that the new President is all ready to start when he is inaugurated on January 20th. There has been no concession by Trump and I doubt if we will see one. But surprisingly for UK punters the Betfair market on the election remains open – the total…

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Betting against the GOP looks to be the value bet in Georgia

Betting against the GOP looks to be the value bet in Georgia

Make no mistake the runoff elections for two vacant Georgia senate seats on January 5th are about the most important non-Presidential US election in recent times. This is happening because in neither race on November 3rd did a winner emerge in either election where the rule is that a 50%_ vote share is required for victory. Currently there are 48 Senators who caucus with the Democrats and fifty who caucus with the Republicans. If the Democrats won both of the…

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What’s Trump really up to?

What’s Trump really up to?

A poker player says “Call Trump’s bluff” I think this analysis is on the right tracks. What must be dominating Trump’s mind at the moment is the possibility of facing criminal charges after the new President has been sworn on January 20th. My betting is that he won’t concede but there might be a deal of some kind and Trump is trying to exert as much pressure a he can by not doing so at the moment and really hindering…

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Punters still betting on Trump even though his legal and other efforts to stay have floundered

Punters still betting on Trump even though his legal and other efforts to stay have floundered

Even after everything that has happened in the past few days Betfair have continued to keep their 2020 next president market open and the total amount of bets matched now exceeds £908 million. Given the terms of their market as set out on PB several times this is a nonsense and this should have been settled two weeks ago. Betfair has done its reputation no good with its handling of this. There have been two big developments in the US…

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