Given the proximity of the Scottish Parliament elections Johnson’s devolution comments might not be wise

Given the proximity of the Scottish Parliament elections Johnson’s devolution comments might not be wise

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One of the things that the pandemic has meant is that there have been almost no elections taking place in the UK since March. This was changed a little bit last month with the lifting of the ban on council by-elections in Scotland but so far we’ve not seen the regular weekly data showing what is happening when real voters cast real ballots in the rest of the UK. Coming up in May will be a very big election day…

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Betfair’s “Next President” market remains open and so far a staggering £696m of bets have been matched

Betfair’s “Next President” market remains open and so far a staggering £696m of bets have been matched

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Chart Betdata.io While other bookies and the Smarkets betting exchange might have closed their main WH2020 markets that on Betfair remains open and continues to attract big money. Punters seem to be split into two camps – those thinking that it is almost a certainty that Biden will be next President and even odds of 94% make it a value bet and those who think that somehow Trump still has a chance. The amounts being wagered at the moment are…

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Trump’s reluctance to concede could hinder his party in the Georgia Runoffs

Trump’s reluctance to concede could hinder his party in the Georgia Runoffs

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We are all aware of the mighty election battle that takes place in Georgia on January 5th in the runoff elections that could determine whether the Republicans or the Democrats control the Senate. If the Republicans hold the seats then they retain a majority. If the Democratic party wins both seats then with the casting vote of the Vice President, Kamala Harris they will have control albeit by narrowest of margins. Yet as the Washington Post notes for the Republicans…

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The Fall of The West

The Fall of The West

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I sometimes wonder if Francis Fukuyama regrets his 1992 book ‘The End of History’, written in the heady aftermath of the Cold War. It is commonly believed to have argued that mankind’s ideological evolution had ended, and the universalisation of liberal democracy was its endpoint. In truth, this does him a disservice: he framed his original essay as a question, not a statement, and was careful to say that totalitarian “events” could still happen in future but democracy would become…

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Dropping the pilot

Dropping the pilot

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To listen to some Conservatives, you would have thought that Carrie Symonds had slain the wicked witch of the west with a click of her shoes. Excitable munchkin MPs are cavorting with joy at the sudden fall of Dominic Cummings. These MPs, who divide equally between cowardly lions, tin men without hearts and scarecrows with no brains, all now expect a return to true Conservative government (though they disagree about what this would mean in practice). Let us be clear. This is…

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Team Trump tries to fight the result using the old “piles of paper” wheeze

Team Trump tries to fight the result using the old “piles of paper” wheeze

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As WH2020 sore loser Trump desperately seeks to carry on as President after the official inauguration on January 20th CNN has produced the above sequence on how Trump and his team use the “piles of paper” ruse to get out of tricky PR situations. Currently the President’s team is trying to defuse the argument that their claims of voter fraud are baseless by appearing in TV interview carrying a heap of of documents and files that they say support their…

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