Best Of

Good morning, everyone.

F1: Mercedes continue to fall, down to 4.5 for Russell and 7.5 for Antonelli to win the race. They're 3.5 and 7.5 for qualifying, and if Russell ends up on pole should be hedgeable.

Rain could make things peculiar. Race especially could be a mess as grip's already very low.

Russell almost looks like value at 4.5, given how the Mercedes dominated in Vegas last year.

Aye. Content, for now, with the 7.5 I've got on him, and 12 on Antonelli. If they have a very solid qualifying may hedge the pair of them.

I have a feeling that Mercedes will win both titles next year.

Cannot wait for the markets to open.

Good morning everyone.

Our Tesla correspondent's report rant about the 3p per mile tax for EVs.

Nice objective report on the Telegraph. Essentially "This is from the Telegraph, so half of it may be bollocks."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Fv39zGyAc

No no, it was a rant. And a bit clickbaity. Successfully so.

Provoked the desired response from the kind of people who are reading the Telegraph/Mail and watching GBeebies/TalkTory and are OUTRAGED that Tesco have banned Christmas trees.

I am depressed at the moment. But having good fun calling out performative wazzockry.

Also check out Emergency Podcast where we tore into "British Culture" and I unveiled my war against wazzocks
https://youtu.be/VkvpriRHc8s

Good morning everyone.

Our Tesla correspondent's report rant about the 3p per mile tax for EVs.

Nice objective report on the Telegraph. Essentially "This is from the Telegraph, so half of it may be bollocks."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Fv39zGyAc

No no, it was a rant. And a bit clickbaity. Successfully so.

Provoked the desired response from the kind of people who are reading the Telegraph/Mail and watching GBeebies/TalkTory and are OUTRAGED that Tesco have banned Christmas trees.

I am depressed at the moment. But having good fun calling out performative wazzockry.

Also check out Emergency Podcast where we tore into "British Culture" and I unveiled my war against wazzocks
https://youtu.be/VkvpriRHc8s

Sorry to hear you're feeling shitty - my commiserations.

I posed the question to Alastair/Antifrank ‘At what price is Farage value as next PM?’, as I have laid almost everyone and began to wonder if Sir Keir being removed before the next election might be being oversold now. Farage is now 7.6 having traded 3.2, drifting not because he is less likely to be PM after the next GE, but due to the problems of the Labour leadership.

Everything has its price!

Starmer is 5/2 to lead Labour at the next GE, 1/3 not to. I get the feeling backing things to stay the same at odds against is probably a decent strategy in political betting, but could be wrong here I suppose

Agree. Look at the chain of events that are set in motion if the party does try to try to get rid of Starmer. They (Lab) are rolling along the bottom of the polls. Any change in leadership will be accompanied by calls to secure legitimacy via the national polls and you don't have to be John Curtice to work out what that would mean for Lab and all its MPs know that (although there are doubtless many of the awkward squad who would like to bring down the building around them "on principle"). So by destabilising what is already a rickety structure they could possibly end up not only with no Sir Keir, but with not being in government.

Sounds unlikely in the real world but possible and hence backint the status quo is I think right call, notwithstanding the next GE is (which I appreciate is built into the call) years and years away.

Calls for a GE, yes. but no government with a big majority would obey calls for a GE forthwith.

Good morning, everyone.

Good news.

"UK to ban resale of tickets above face value for live events" (£)

https://www.ft.com/content/e76df64b-b5ff-4e6d-9064-53233073908c

Why?

I've often relied on the secondary resale market to get tickets at all.

You can't buck the market.

Oh they'll try...

A few weeks ago I was toying with the idea of paying about 7x face value for a football match. In the 'wrong' end. Eventually decided against it because with the additional travel and accommodation costs I just couldn't justify the expense simply to tick off a new ground.

But I feel like denying people this option is fundamentally wrong. There will still be ways the very rich/connected can attend any event they want; it's only going to be ordinary people who miss out.

And I suspect it will ultimately result iin inflation of base ticket prices. Supply and demand, and all that.

It's definitely a supply and demand issue, but the market is distorted, the agent for the seller restricts the available supply in order to sell above the equilibrium price and increase their revenue. Hence in the 2000s going to "sold out" gigs that weren't full because tickets hadn't been put on sale.
The theoretical result of ending resale at above face value is that the base prices will fall. Demand curve shifts left as touts stop buying to resell, supply curve shifts right as sellers release all the tickets, resulting intersection is at a lower price.