IG Index to sponsor Politicalbetting party
May 31st, 2005
The Politcalbetting party is going ahead in London on Saturday June 25th and Bookvalue - also known as Philip, is handling the organisation.
We are being helped by a generous contribution from IG Index which should cover some of the core costs. The plan is to book a room in London, possibly Westminster. There will be some cost to participants.
Please could those interested in going send an email to book_value@hotmail.co.uk as soon as possible.
Thanks to Philip and thanks to IG Index for making this possible.
Mike Smithson
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I’ll have to offer my apologise as I’m afraid I’ll be at Glastonbury, assuming the bloody tickets materialise!.. it’s a shame as an old pb.com alumni I’d have been happy to pop in but ah well
Send us a photo Ben, and we’ll put it on the wall and toast it
2 - (i) toast it in spirits, using 1/6 Gill measures?
or (ii) is that toast as in “Gill is toast in Leicester South”? 
Perhaps I should have said “Teather it to the wall and toast it.”
Icarus would want the toast well-Dunn I presume …
5 - burnish’d by Hartlepool sun
Aaaaargghhh! The puns, the puns! I’ll see you all there.
I think Ben would be happy to Byrne the toast in memory of Hodge Hill.
Glad you are joining us, Robert - we must owe you many a drink between us for your efforts.
Tabman Did I ever say Gill was toast? Hmmm… well who knows, I must say I do miss his smug grin
twas a fabulous smug grin, ah well I think the 25th is the night Coldplay are headlining so as I’m there being crushed to death in front of the pyramid stage I’ll look up and think “oh to be in a spacious bar in London, expounding on political hackery”… I jest now, but I’m confident it will happen 
Don’t worry “I’ll be Wright there with you in spirit”…. Priceless indeed!
ben im gonna glasto as well you ever go to the leftfield
6 - yes, I was rather pleased with that little piece of doggerel after Betjeman
9 - Ben, its a sign of political greatness. You can join the pantheon of Labour heroes who never said something (but could have): Wilson: “As I said at the Blackpool conference …”
Callaghan: “Crisis? What Crisis?”
Healey: “Silly billy!”
Prescott: “Double chips with curry sauce, meat pie and mushy peas.”
Re. 9, as with Keane, I used to like Coldplay, but that was before they (like Keane) were played to death in TV programmes, TV trailers, adverts, and (worst of all) railway stations. Truly too much of a good thing (or, in the case of the maudlin dirge of The Scientist, a bad thing - I’m sure it must be down there with Angels and My Heart Will Go On as an all-time favourite funeral tune).
Still, I’ll envy you, Ben, if you get to see The Killers!
Michael Owen hat-trick in the footie , TB hat-trick of election wins, Tory hat-trick of unelectable bald right-wingers .
Talking of bald right-wingers, Bobby Charlton’s record is being chased down …
Phil Neville now has the Captain’s armband - disaster looms….a bit like putting the Vulcan in charge of the Tories…..
15 - I blame it on the grandparents - you have to be suspicious of a gene pool that could name its offspring Neville Neville.
15 , I stand corrected the Vulcan is the saviour of the Tory party and Phil Neville should be Party Chairman.
Love to come to the party. Love to help with the costs.
16 , Tabman , perhaps the Vicar stuttered over the font…..
18, Love to come to the party, love to help with the costs..Mikhail Khodorkovsky c/o Yukos c/o Lubiyanka…..
O/T very pleasing to see Jonathan Aitken making a fool of himself again over Deep Throat revelations
21 , Alex , not another Tory sex scandal…
tom… I didn’t get there last year, but back in 2003 I did drift to that corner of the site, to be fair I’m very fond of the out of the way bits of the festival… sitting round a camp fire/ torch in the healing fields of an evening is always a pleasure of mine… and to think after this it’ll be back to Fort Soulsby
Richard, don’t worry comrade, a mate of mine who’s going to glasto has seen the Killers and while I’m looking forward to seeing them live he’s not so excited… agree with you on the coldplay clones though, Keane, Snow Patrol, etc… but if you go back to tracks like “Shiver” and “Trouble” on the Parachutes Album or “Clocks” or the “The Scientist” on Rush of Blood to the head its still good stuff, the preponderance of similar bands does dilute their impact somewhat… give me nice obscure indie bands before NME gets hold of’em *shudder*
Tabman I’ll take that as the complement it was no doubt intended to be
… i fear i’ve been outdone though, Lord Gould seems to have made his first “official” appearance on this board.
re 18. Great to see that Philip Gould - who is Tony Blair’s personal pollster and many other things as well - is a site regular and is coming to the party. Also - many thanks for the offer of support. We’ll be in touch.
Re. 23, ‘Mitch Benn’s Crimes Against Music’ dealt quite nicely with this theme (’Oh no, I don’t know if this track is by Coldplay, Keane or Snow Patrol’). Yes, I saw The Killers on Later, and they didn’t make a very good fist of Mr Brightside live (though I still think it should be David Blunkett’s campaign theme tune).
Thanks to all who have emailed so far. I will keep you up to date on the arrangements as we make them.