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Month: June 2016

The Conservatives’ paradoxical leadership contest

The Conservatives’ paradoxical leadership contest

Embed from Getty Images   Both Theresa and Boris wanted to lose the referendum If Leave had gone down to a narrow defeat, Boris Johnson would have had all the power with none of the responsibility. He would also have had a senior Cabinet role for a year or two, and a chance to prove himself at that level. There’d be no immediate crisis to manage, and any trouble from Europe – and there would surely have been some –…

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Corbyn loses the confidence vote by a huge margin

Corbyn loses the confidence vote by a huge margin

The short statement pic.twitter.com/N8zgSUSSsI — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) June 28, 2016 Now being told 176 to 44 – huge defeat for JC either way — james lyons (@James___Lyons) June 28, 2016 What a devastating indictment from his colleagues . The big question is what now? What will happen over PMQs tomorrow. Is he going to soldier on?

Team Corbyn says he’ll carry on if the confidence motion goes against him but it will surely be the start of the end

Team Corbyn says he’ll carry on if the confidence motion goes against him but it will surely be the start of the end

Labour MPs at Westminster are currently voting on the no confidence motion that was tabled last night. Voting finishes at 4pm and it’s expected that the result will be announced by 5pm. The assumption is that he’s going to lose and the question will be what happens next. The motion itself is only advisory and Corbyn can just remain if he wants to. The message from his team is that if his MPs want to oust him then then it…

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Don’t write off Mr. Johnson just yet – there are many twists and turns to come in the CON leadership race

Don’t write off Mr. Johnson just yet – there are many twists and turns to come in the CON leadership race

The ex-mayor drops to 2nd place in the next CON leader betting pic.twitter.com/lqlEughpw3 — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) June 28, 2016 I must say that I am a fan of the Conservative party leadership selection process. It has been designed to give a proper role to Tory MPs while leaving the final choice to the postal ballot of party members. It is the system that saw IDS win in 2001 and, of course, Mr. Cameron in December 2005. It would not…

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Theresa May 7% ahead of Johnson amongst CON voters in first leadership race poll

Theresa May 7% ahead of Johnson amongst CON voters in first leadership race poll

The detail of the YouGov CON leadership poll which has Johnson 7% behind amongst CON voters pic.twitter.com/sL1K6dQsSG — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) June 27, 2016 More on Times YouGov CON leadership poll. https://t.co/FanUVqzZDk — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) June 27, 2016 What we really need is poll of CON members which YouGov has done very successfully in past — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) June 27, 2016 It looks as though Theresa May's low profile EURef campaign could pay off. — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB)…

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The EU referendum: An attempt to analyse the in-play betting

The EU referendum: An attempt to analyse the in-play betting

Michael Dent the creator of PoliticsOdds.bet, a site which tracks and graphs betting prices on political events, looks at the EU Referendum in-play betting At 11:36pm on June 23rd, just before the first result was declared, the market was just short of 90% confident of a Remain vote. So much for markets knowing best – the market was wrong, and staggeringly confident in its wrongness. So how did we get from there to settling the market for Leave? What follows is an attempt…

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Those who say that the bookies got EURef wrong don’t understand betting

Those who say that the bookies got EURef wrong don’t understand betting

Ladbrokes betting barometer 2239BST June 23rd Punters aim to make money not to provide an alternative opinion indicator As well as the cries that the polls got EURef wrong there’s been something of a backlash against the betting industry which more than at any previous election had sought to promote itself in the manner that Ladbrokes did in the graphic above. They are being attacked for “getting it wrong” – something you’d never hear after, say, the Grand National when,…

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The fight to be next CON leader and PM: The race begins

The fight to be next CON leader and PM: The race begins

We’ve just got details of the Conservative leadership contest. The plan is to start it immediately and have Cameron’s successor in place on September 2nd. The process will be the same as the one used in the 2001 and 2005 elections. MPs will hold a series of ballot until a final short-list of two is agreed which will then go to the party’s 150k members. Nominations will close on Thursday then MPs will vote every Tuesday & Thursday until a…

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