Peter the Punter’s BrandIndex Pointers
March 26th, 2007
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This Week - Make Hay from Straw
No surprise that we’re leading off this week with man of the moment, Jack Straw. It seems to us he suddenly has everything going for him – campaign leader, the promise of High Office and the opportunity, as a former Foreign Secretary, to pronounce weightily on the Iran crisis. He looks a snip at 76.2. Buy two points.
Tony Blair’s rise in the popularity chart shows no sign of stopping. He led us to our second most successful performance ever last week – a plus of 9.9 points – and subject to anything Commander Yates might have to say, he looks good for further improvement. Go cautiously though, just in case an Inspector calls. We suggest a one point buy at 64.0.
William Hague is another who could benefit from Iran-related publicity. This consistently good performer looks a safe bet at 97.3. Buy one point.
Looks like another week in which Ming is likely to be crowded out of the spotlight. He’s due to drop back in the charts. Sell one point at 77.5.
Since we have plenty of cash in the bank (30.4 points in total), we thought we might also try a couple more speculative shots. After much deliberation, we decided that the Brown-bashing had perhaps been overdone and that his price had dropped to the point where it represents a bit of value. Buy him for half a point at 63.5. And just for fun, sell bonking Boris – half a point at 94.2. We hear he’s been on the brew and might just be suffering a hangover.
Take it steady and remember that spread betting is very volatile. We base the recommendations on a stake of £10 per point but don’t under any circumstances risk more than you can afford to lose. We’ve had a good run but there’s no magic formula and as we all should know by now ‘the value of your investments can go down as well as up’.
Have fun, but have care too.
Peter Smith (Peter the Punter)
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Many thanks for the tips, and well done for beating the bookies!
Thanks Benny.
I’d just like to add, for everybody’s attention, that I thought IG’s odds were very sporting this week. There’s plenty of potential there if you like a punt, whether you agree with our recommendations or not.
Good luck, one and all.
Peter, I must have a “chat” with you on the 17th
Form an orderly queue, Benedict.
Didn’t bet too much this time, don’t really know where things are going to go, only £2 a point… bit of extra pocket money if we win again though!
Just been emailed. There is an unconformed report that the crisis in Labour will be resolved in the following way.
1. Following the May elections senior party members figures will approach Brown and ask him to withdraw, or otherwise threaten to publicly condemn his candidacy for having caused the disastrous May performance.
2. The leadership election will be postponed by two months to allow an open field for as many candidates as possible, pushing the election back to August-September.
3. The September conference will be used to announce the new leader, rather than a special conference in July, saving the party several hundred thousand pounds. It is expected there will be a much stronger candidate to take on the Conservatives, and save dozens of seats at the forthcoming general election.
Emailed by by whom - herbert proper ?
Re 6, Will, that assumes two things.
1. That someone has the balls to tell Brown that.
2. There is someone who can save Labour.
Peter Hitchens on now.
Question: if Labour lurched to the left, would Cameron still be guilty of denying choice to the British electorate?
6. B******t.
Will Herbert, you are the one that posts as the Tarquins, no?
Hitchens scraping the barrel a bit.
Derek Draper, an “anonymous” member of the Bullingdon, and a former head of the Conservative Research department who “isn’t impressed” by his subsequent career!
9. I hope Labour are taping this, just a few snippets in the next PPB and Cameron is toast. I said the Tories made a fatal mistake in picking this snooty schoolboy, and I stand by it… How do you think this t*sser will go down in the North-West, Yorkshire, Scotland, in other words where all the marginals are, full of bluff northern folk?
12. Yes, it’s pathetic. Is post 13. supposed to be a spoof?
First I opened a Spreadfair account, then I opened a Betfair account. William Hill came next. Now its IG Index. Where does it end?
There’s much less meat in this than I was expecting. Hitchens is not a Michael Crick or a Michael Cockerall. He likes the sound of his voice too much. What we want are more facts and is this going to go on for a whole hour?
Re 16, Mike, I am watching paint dry. Much more politically informative and interesting.
13 I don’t know, shaun Woodward seems to do OK up there. You spinning into fantasyland now Rod.
I hope Labour do put it in their next broadcast because it will show they really are the party of envy, spite and poison. DC is as bullet proof as Blair was, people just don’t care about the fact he’s posh; the fact you and Hitchens care so much about just demonstrates your own particular brand of wierdness.
It certainly won’t translate into many votes except in already safe-seats as part of a core vote strategy. This might have worked if the Goblin King hadn’t decided to tax the poor to pay for extra tax breaks for his rich foreign property owning chums.
15 I just counted mine - eighteen and rising. Keeping on top of them all is the hardest work I’ve ever done.
BTW - just found this article by Cameron about the war. Not quite so gung ho as some are now suggesting.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/columnist/story/0,,915929,00.html
16 Well it’s amusing, light (very) entertainment but I wouldn’t be taking it too seriously. I imagine DC’s having a bloody good laugh at it.
13 - Spot on Rod. This is the darkest hour for the Conservative cause since Black Wednesday itself. Project Cameron is at an end.
Why we ever got rid of IDS I’ll never know.
18. “I don’t know, shaun Woodward seems to do OK up there.”
That’s right, “only” a 19% drop in the Labour vote in St.Helen’s South in 2001….
Does anyone like Andrew Pierce?
For his sake, one has to hope he has a future on TV - it’s difficult to imagine that his career with the Daily Mail will continue indefinitely.
Tim Montgomerie!
Hitchens has missed one open goal - Carlton. Otherwise, its nice to have one’s prejudices played to
18,I would calmly state that much spite and poison was vented upon millions of our poorest most vunerable people through the 18 years of Conservative government;FWIW myself and my family do NOT fall in that sector of society
I loved the bit about him being so well-versed in domestic duties he didn’t know you were supposed to roll your sleeves up to do the washing up
George Monbiot … Yuk !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Has the traffic to webcameron suddenly increased?
What’s so frustrating is that this could have been made so much better by a proper investigative journalist like Michael Crick. More more facts - less polemic.
As Hitchens and Frank Field appear to agree, who else are the law-abiding and hard-working, “normal” people going to vote for - except the BNP?
BTW, Only 24 visitors until I get my 21,000th!
33 - Presumably Frank Field would hope that they will vote for the Labour Party?
Re 33. Rod, if the people you refer to are concerned about immigration, as far as I can tell the language has changed more than the policy.
It’s a bit rich for George Monbiot to complain about someone who has done more to bring green issues to the forefront of the political agenda than any politician in recent years, regardless of whether he believes in it or not.
36 - care to elucidate, Benedict?
While you are all watching Hitchens, can I just answer some queries addressed direct to me which appeared on the previous thread and which I could not respond to immediately.
I’m sorry if this appears self-indulgent but you can just skip it if it doesn’t concern you, and it will at least discourage anybody from referring to me as a ‘right-wing cockney’ and BNP voter again!
Thanks.
21 A H Matlock
I’m flattered by your interest and also pleased that you weren’t sure. I try not to be too partisan in my comments, which on the whole is fairly easy for me because I am not heavily committed to any particular Party. I would describe my Politics as centreist, or maybe a bit to the left. It follows that I’m generally supportive of Blair, although I think Iraq was a terrible mistake.
Since the political scene now seems to have become focused more on the centre I would be quite comfortable under Government by any of the three main Parties, or a coalition of any two. I would not have said that during the Thatcher years, so you can take it that I approve of the direction in which David Cameron is leading his Party.
Does that answer you satisfactorily? If you come to the Launch Party I will be happy to elaborate until you wished you had never asked me!
26 Textual Analyst
You’ve a very good memory! Yes, that’s pretty much all correct. As for Snowflake, my politics are fairly close to hers, although I wish she were less strident. The ‘chivalry’ to which you refer relates, I think, to an occasion when somebody was very rude to her. Can’t stand rudeness. It had nothing to do with her being a woman. I don’t think she would approve of being patronised in that way.
30 Andy Cooke
You’re dead right about my pro-Eu beliefs. It’s probably the strongest political belief I hold, unfashionable though it may be.
You are also right about me having LD sympathies. I approved of their tax proposals in the last election and have always been strongly in favour of PR. In fact, I voted LD in the past few elections, but it was largely tactical. (Guildford, you see.)
Now I’m back living in solid Labour territory I will probably vote Labour next time, but only because the incumbent is a hard working constituency MP (Harry Cohen) with a solid record of voting against Iraq.
36.If you were watching the program you would have seen they were talking about Law’n'Order…
Hmm a whole hour to say what could be telescoped into minutes.FWIW,I believe DC is sincere in his ‘liberal conservatism’-I do however believe he will increasingly come across as a nice,but indecisive flip-flopper:and despite the protestations from many on here,I believe once GB is Prime Minister he will very quickly take an ascendancy on the stage,from which it is hard to see DC clawing back into his niche as a potential PM -to-be
Re 38, Tabman, as far as I am aware we are still in favour of a border police, limiting numbers of immigrants, and most controversially actually trying to enforce some of the laws (Something Labour has singly failed to do)
Re 40, Rod, We still firmly believe in enforcing the law rather than just passing new ones to please tabloid headline makers.
41 - you’re upbeat today Patrick! Sounds like you’ve found some more inner steel
44 I admit I became unduly despondent in the face of the poll giving a 15% lead to DC:the budget was obviously political,aiming at those who first espoused Labour in 1997.Whilst one can only draw so much inference from extropolating recent history (eg comparing now to 1989 at the same stage of Mrs.T’s govt ),taking all into account,at worst Labour should dead-heat with the Tories in terms of popular vote,or at worst fall a percnatge point behind-upshot-fourth straight Labour victory:wink:
45-I see you have no problem Labour forming a government if they are (far?) behind the popular vote.
For the record, 1)would you feel the same way if the electoral arithmetic were the other way round? 2)Did you scream blue murder over GWB in 2000 becuase he lost the popular vote?
28 which would be terrible if it were true - what must really grate for you then is the increase in youth unemployment since 1997, the reduction in social mobility since 1997, the doubling of CPI (and RPI) inflation since 1997 - all things that skewer the poor but leave everyone else thinking things are going swimmingly.
RodCrosby, Shaun’s butler has no doubt been severely whipped for letting his master’s vote drop so precipitously. C’mon, you know people like a bit of posh, they always have. Hitchens is a swivel eyed loony, as are most people whose politics swing wildly from one end of the spectrum to the other.
46 - Most Americans I met while in the US over the 2000 election weren’t concerned about the popular vote but about whether GWB had won Florida fairly - the media go so overboard on explaining the electoral college that everone looked to see how that was racking up. They’d accept a popular vote deficiency because that’s in the rules.
32 - the hitchens programme was rubbish, but it was nice to see that unpleasant neo-con michael gove squirming
I understand George Monbiot went to Eton As for 13, snooty schoolboy, its Brown who picks his nose in public.
50. most northern folk do….
51. Go to Eton?
48-I was in Florida in October 2000. Conventional wisdom seemed to be that Bush would win the vote but Gore might edge him in the Electoral Votes. Gore got asked about this and responded, it’s the system…He must have wished he could have eaten those words, but to give him his due he never claimed he should be president on account of getting a plurality of the votes.
53. How could he complain. Three previous presidents were popular vote losers. Interestingly, though, many historians believe Nixon won the popular vote in 1960, but the Kennedy/Mafia compact stuffed the ballot boxes because they feared a perceived lack of legitimacy….
Popular vote means nothing, especially in America where you have many millions of people eg. in California, New York in recent elections who know that their state is a foregone conclusion.
54-People complained on his (unwitting) behalf. Every system has its quirks and “injustices” yet so long as all players know the rules and accept them this should not be a problem.
I don’t hear the Conservatives saying the system is weighted against them and so “unfair”. Personally, I think the the bias is more apparent than real because of turnout, tactical voting, etc, but that is O/T.
55. New York may not be a completely foregone conclusion next time if the lineup is something like Giuliani vs Edwards (unlikely though that is). Clinton or Obama should carry it against anyone but should someone else come through, the former mayor of New York may stand a chance.
Out of interest, does anyone know what the largest ’single-constituency’-type election is? I’m guessing it might be the Brazilian or Russian presidencies, but that’s not a very educated guess.
And the 21,000 visitor to my blog seems to have been Andrea, which is odd given that he has not posted this evening, unless there is a growing fan base in Italy for PB.com
58. Benedict, I visited the website after reading your post at 34, but the counter said 20,999 when I visisted it. So I suppose that the 21,000 is someone else
Guiliani would stand an excellent chance of taking NY against Clinton and certainly NJ.
58. When you were talking earlier about your 21,000th visitor, I thought you had a stately home that you opened to the public or something like that. Didnt realise you had a blog……
Re 59, Andrea, unless you have moved from Italy to Greenwich you were definitely visitor number 21,000.
Regrettably funds do not extend to offering a prize
Re 61, Ian, Alas no stately home
but I do have a blog which is here
http://aconservatives.blogspot.com/
On the US election theme, Zogby is the latest poll out. On the Democrat side, there is little change apart from a small increase in support for Edwards (which will please Yokel).
On the GOP side, Guiliani has increased his lead over McCain, who falls back. Showing for the first time is Fred Thompson (a PB tip from yesterday!) on 9%, same as Mitt Romney.
Take the hint, punters.
50 Pot. Stowe or Radley I think, not Eton.
July 14-15 is now the expected date of the leadership change.
July 14-15 is 8.5 weeks from May 8, which is expected date of the announcement. Chosen as same day as the beginning of Stormont devolution in Northern Ireland.
This is similar to the Wilson timetable (1976).
I’m always being mean to Tony Blair and New Labour, so, for a change, credit to the Prime Minister for the Northern Irish agreement. Must have been a bore, working with the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone, but he stuck it through. Bravo TB.
66. And let’s not forget John Major, who did most of the spadework, while the bombs were still going off (one missing him by a hairsbreadth)…
On topic (well, sort of). I agree with the assessment re Blair in the piece. That’s not to say I disagree with the rest, I just want to use that as a launch pad for something else.
Blair should rightly get a lot of credit for today’s deal in Ulster. Maybe not quite as much as some others who put even more on the line to get where we are now - I’m thinking of John Major and David Trimble in particular - but it has been one thing that Blair has been committed to and seen through successfully (fingers crossed), having invested a lot of capital that could have been lost had it gone wrong for him as it did for others.
I do think it’s a wonderful day, and one that’s almost passed by without much comment on here (unless it was all this afternoon when I was without internet access and didn’t keep up with what was being posted).
On the others in the BrandIndex, I’d be doubtful about Brown and Boris’ ratings which look about right to me, but I agree with the assessment of Straw and Ming’s respective prospects.
66/67. Well, that was fortuitous timing!
66. LOL Sean T!
Personally I always think John Major played a starring role. He might easily have rebuffed the IRA’s original approach and who would have blamed him? Some still say he made the wrong call but I don’t think so.
Respect.
Bloody hell! Peace and harmony breaks out on PB.com!
I gotta lie down….:-(
71 - it was carefully negotiated. Nick P and Sean T sat at a diamond-shaped table and carefully coreographed statements were read about putting an end to ancient enmities …
re 49 and Michael Give squirming. He was woeful on Today this morning. Quite why he believes stamp duty stimulates rises in hosue prices is beyond me. After much spluttering from Humphrys, Gove never managed to explain the lack of logic behind his argument.
It was not his most fluent performance it has to be said. Hardly filled potential voters with confidence about the quality of a potential minister.
72. Had they forgotten the Battle of the Diamond?….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Diamond
Peter the Punter, I assume you would say 65 on Thompson is good value?
71 Not only Sean T and RodCrosby but Ming & Dave together on a platform
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6496261.stm
Re 71, Some of the Southern Irish give most of the credit to John Major. I have to say I am pleased his involvement has been praised here!
76 - organised by Peter Hitchens?
70. Heh. Well, the sun is shining, (at least it was), I’ve just come back from a funky fortnight in Israel, and I’ve had an idea for a book which will almost certainly outsell the Da Vinci Code. So I thought I’d be generous.
Back to normal tomorrah.
I predicted Thompson a while ago and was first to do so I think
75. It would be excellent value, however I think you’re looking at the wrong Thompson. Fred Thompson is nearer 15/1.
I am a Labour supporter but I am always impressed by Michael Gove. Agreed he didn’t do a great job tonight on Hitchens programme which was quite lightweight and far from a polemic as described by Mike Smithson.
In my view Michael Gove is one of the most intelligent and articulate MPS we have. Sadly not blessed with the best good looks but always worth listening to.
82 - Gove’s foreign policy views are nightmarish, he seems more like Bush than Bush. He’d be a good arts minister though…….
64. I used a faulty source and apologise to you, pbc and Monbiot. As I so often say, double check.
O/T (and fairly boring, too) - apologies, but I went and posted this on the previous thread, not having realised this one had started meanwhile. I wouldn’t bother reposting, but I’m genuinely interested in the answer to my concluding question. Anyway, FWIW, here’s what I wrote.
Well, I was tempted by the Straw bet and ended up sticking a tenner on on Betfair at 4.1 - not sure it was a very good price, but a nice little bonus if he does get no.11.
However - I think that, as 73 [previous thread] implies, the French race is looking less bleak for Royal than it was. Accordingly, I’ve hedged by taking out a side bet at Ladbrokes on her: £26 at 3/1. That’s to add to my flutters last week at William Hill on Bayrou (£25 at 5/1) and Sarkozy (£50 at 11/10).
Which I think means for a total outlay of £101 on the présidentielle, I get £104 (£3 profit!) for Ségo; £105 (£4 up) for Sarko; and £150 (£49 up) for Bayrou. OK, piddling amounts (and apologies for describing this at overmuch length), but I suddenly got cold feet about the prospect of losing my initial £75 if Royal did make it, and I quite like the prospect of a certain profit, however small, on every remotely likely outcome. Is this an example of arbitrage? - it’s not really a term I understand.
Did someone once say that Gove would be a future Tory leader? Think it may be a while….
Saw the Cameron programme tonight and thought it was totally vacuous, the most significant thing was an hour on tv talking about a party leader is probably good for keeping his name in the public consciousness.
Well done on the BrandIndex predictions so far. Straw’s on fire right now!
Mind you I agree with Mike Smithson that Michael Crick is an excellent political investigative journalist, presently on Newsnight praising John Majors contribution to todays great events which I also agree with.
I wouldn’t lump Crick along with Hitchens and Heffer as argued on a recent thread.
84 People get this wrong. Iain Dale reports that the lovely Pat (ronising) Hewitt twice referred to Jack McConnell as McDonnell on Scots TV - freudian slip revealing her real support/fear of John McD? or just the Scots First Minister is so unimportant to Westminster Labour?
75 ?????????!!!!!!!!!!!! Noisy Summer…You sure you got the right Thompson?
It’s Fred, not Tommy, you need.
82. Ukpaul. I haven’t heard his foreign policy views and I suspect I would be strongly opposed to them. But it is a pleasure to listen to an intelligent man making a cogent argument. Not something present day politics often affords.
I first came across him on “The Moral Maze”.
57 - largest single constituency election would be the Indonesian presidency, I reckon. 110 million votes in the runoff last time, compared to 96m in Brazil last year.
Russia is back on 66m or so.
Saddest post of the evening?
85 - yes, that’s one way of arbritraging a market, although you’re not fully covered since e.g. Le Pen could yet win. The “purest” form of arbitrage would be to back one runner somewhere and simultaneously lay him at shorter odds elsewhere (usually betfair) - though you do need to be sure the two counterparties will settle in the same way.
85 HG - It’s not strictly an arbitrage. After all, Le Pen could win and you’d be shafted. It is however a pretty neat piece of hedging.
When Mike departs to his luxurious tax-haven retirement home - which by all accounts could be any day soon - we will need a new leader. You’re on the short list.
Peter the Punter, and Ted, I have posted a comment on the last thread, but just in case you did not see it, here it is again
re 78, Ted, that milestone was passed at 9.48 PM today, with a visit from Andrea!
Peter the Punter if you want some advice on a blog, email me.
92 Aaron - Can we sort out who’s going to be giving the betting lessons around here? Is it going to be me, or somebody who knows what they’re talking about?
Re 93, Peter I think there is a sufficiently large anti Le Pen vote to ensure he would never get it.
Yes it is hedging, rather than pure arbitrage, but some times to get a value bet you do need to exclude the 3 legged nags, save that they may bring down a front runner (like Jospin IIRC last time?)
95 - lol, I’m not sure whether I should be dispensing the advice, given my position! Stick to through-the-card reverse forecasts on afternoon greyhounds guys - you can’t go far wrong
92 & 93 - thanks, both! Will keep an eye open for analogous situations in future. My calculation was indeed that Le Pen would never make it, even if he got to the second round (based in part on what happened last time). Arguably, of course, if he does win it, we’re all shafted…
re 67, 68 let’s see if it happens yet. If a week’s a long time in GB politics it must be an eternity in Ulster. FWIW I reckon there will not be a real political settlement in NI until they start electing the same parties as the rest of us and leave the sectarian ones to the crackpots and bigots. New Lab have done nothing to promote this though. And with a sectarian control of state education then the divide is going to become even greater in the future.
Two points:
1) George Monbiot went to Stowe. His father is Sir Raymond Monbiot, Wessex Conservative Party big wig.
2) Michael Gove is an outstandingly intelligent and erudite man. I once heard him answer, without preparation, a question about the connection between 19th century English literature and the Western genre movies of John Ford. Amazingly interesting. He’s also a really nice guy. Ask his Labour opponents. He can mix it with the best of them in debate but is unfailing polite and considerate in private. My main doubt about him is that, ultimately, he’s too much of a gentleman to have the true killer instinct.
Re 100, My main gripe with Gove is that he is too much of a neo con. Apart from that you are right he is a brilliant man.
There’s not much of interest in the news today.
May 8th date mentioned for announcement.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1572697.ece
100. I’d be impressed if Gove - or any MP ( other than Evan Harris of course) could tell you something about, say, the central importance of the lipid bilayer in biochemistry without preparation.
Fat chance. Westminster is stuffed with useless arts graduates & lawyers.
66-72: Thanks, seanT (never thought I’d type those words!). I don’t think we need all argue the toss about who gets most credit, really - it was good for Major and his team (I can’t remember who his NI SoS was?) to make the start and good for Blair and Hain to see it to the end. And we ought to give Paisley and Adams a bit of credit too - they have moved their constituencies quite incredibly far. They’ve all played difficult hands pretty well: the ‘I’ll make you dislike me more than you dislike each other’ tactic is an interesting addition to the armoury of peacemakers.
It’s a good day for the British Isles. And we shouldn’t care if they do start falling out over the level of water rates or whatever - a nice period of normal political argument won’t do any harm, and the principle of mutual acceptability will still have been firmly nailed down. What does Yokel think?
I remember once seeing an interview with an Indonesian guerilla leader who’d made peace with his long-standing enemies. A journalist asked him why, and he said with a weary smile, “We’re all getting old, you know.” Perhaps that plays a role in dispute resolution more often than one thinks - people don’t want to live their entire lives in deadlock.
re 104, ColinW, are you a Thatcher fan then? (Chemistry graduate?)
104: A lipid bilayer is a membrane made up of phospholipids or other lipid molecules. It’s part of *all* biological membranes (e.g. cell membranes), and I gather that life is not thought possible without it. Now will you vote for me, Colin?
106. Pass the garlic! Thatcher went bad & became a lawyer though.
107. Nice try. Tell me about lipid fluidity & domain formation with an exposition of Kinosita’s wobbling cone model of protein rotational diffusion & I’ll think about it.
Seriously, though, I am impressed.
Gulp. Scrabble. Er…I refer the Honourable Member to http://www.biophysj.org/cgi/content/abstract/37/2/461
OT. What sort of figures are there in the French opinion polls for the 5th to 12th candidates?
Re 108, ColinW,
WRT lawyers we may agree 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/27/nlabour27.xml
Is this real?
“The comments could be seen as a pitch for a top Cabinet post such as Foreign Secretary in a Brown Cabinet.”…..
“Until recently Mr Miliband told friends he had no intention of standing against Mr Brown. His line was that the Labour Party had a very good “prime minister in waiting.”
However, when asked yesterday to confirm he would not stand, a spokesman for Mr Miliband said: “We do not think it is necessary to say that. He has said what he intends to say.”
Someone seems to be building a story on not much.
I prefer Jackie Ashley’s piece yesterday in the Guardian- Note she spoke to Miliband himself - not “a spokesman” “……Miliband, shows no new enthusiasm for jumping into the ring. He’s a very bright, optimistic and straightforward man and, when I spoke to him yesterday, he sounded deeply irritated about the campaign to draft him. His position hadn’t changed at all, he insisted. He just was not standing.”
112 Careful Benedict. My daughter’s a lawyer. I can assure you that, however odious and money-grabbing you may imagine they are, from my own experience they are in fact much, much worse.
100/101 Herman/Benedict
May I join as the third person of this mini Michael Gove Appreciation Society?
Many more like him and The Conservative Party could become a real force in British Politics.
104 - I am sure that Howard Stoate (Lab-Dartford), Richard Taylor (Ind-Wyre Forest) and Liam Fox (Con-Woodspring, to name but three)could discuss the lipid bylayer in biochemistry along with your Lib Dem.