politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Turnout’s going to be higher surely on May 7th – but how much higher?
Sporting Index, which is sponsoring PB’s GE15 coverage, has put up a range of new spread markets including one on the turnout level. The opening spread is 69.7% – 70.3% making a mid-point of 70%.
The impact of the change to registration is going to be crucial. That will surely add on a bit to the baseline so it wouldnt take much of a leap to get to 70%.
Two questions: 1) What happened between 1997 and 2001 to drive down turnout by over 10 points? 2) Why is the recent direction of travel in NI the reverse that of everywhere else? (recent meaning since 2001)
I think it's a sell, and indeed I opened a sell position yesterday.
That was my hunch when I first saw the spread, too. I think actual turnout on the day may well be lower than 70% - although between now & may 7th, I think it's more likely than not that expectations of a high turnout rise rather than fall.
On the day (presuming SPIN keep their markets open) I could see this creeping up to mid-70%
Why would it be higher (outside Scotland)? Most media outlets are already predicting it is already a hung parliament and neither major party has a strong wide base anymore. For all the positive noises at some point there are going to be major discussions about government cuts from all sides. Whether they like it or not the austerity meme will still be present even if it is not spoken of in those terms.
The reality is that the major parties can not and probably do not want to offer an inspiring offering but instead a largely statist bureaucratic offering. Its not the sort of thing to bring the voters out in their masses and frankly Cameron and Miliband are not Obama material either. As a result If the major parties and their media outlets can also talk down the lesser parties as they no doubt will try then turnout could be even below last time simply because there will be precious little to attract them.
well it'll certainly be higher than usual in Scotland! Would think a couple of points lower than 70 is the smart money. Given a competitive 2010 brought only 65% out it's hard to see where that extra 5% will come from.
Two questions: 1) What happened between 1997 and 2001 to drive down turnout by over 10 points? 2) Why is the recent direction of travel in NI the reverse that of everywhere else? (recent meaning since 2001)
NI demographics are changing, younger people don't buy into the Sectarian crap so much. The Alliance are nowhere and where they are don't seem to be properly capitalising. And I'll say it again and I'm sure be criticised, constituencies are gerrymandered to maintain some sort of Sectarian outcome.
Basically people don't vote in increasing numbers.
I think it's a sell, and indeed I opened a sell position yesterday.
What's more likely, 65 or 75?
I'd say 65 much more likely
SELL!!!
Yes, exactly my reasoning, and for extra comfort I double-checked against Shadsy's line which is at 68.5
Reassuring!
The fixed line is usually lower than the spread mid but I guess here the upside is bigger with the sell, so it may not be like goals and runs
But seems v odd to me to fix the mid so much higher than the previous three elections, I don't think its a time to be clever clever, just look at the last three in the thread header!
The main factors that will drive the % turnout are: (with the effect on turnout)
Postal Votes % up as it makes voting easy Individual Registration % up as the more committed will register Apathy of the young % down - only if they are registered Zeal of new converts to an insurgent party % up if UKIP energises previous DNV Apathy from Milliband effect % down - main party fatigue Despair from LibDems effect % down - main party fatigue Social reform (Gay Marriage) etc from Torys % down - main party fatigue Cleansing the register, to use Mikes phrase (which sounds ominous) % up if it has happened.
I'm puzzled by this oft-heard claim that graduates with 2:1 degrees in things like history can't get jobs. If they're from a decent university and they can pass a maths test of roughly 11+ standard, I'm gagging for them.
I managed A grades (pre A* era) in A-level Maths/Further Maths/Physics/General Studies, have an Oxford Maths degree and am about to get a First in PPE to boot. What are you gagging to give me?
The Bennett interview shows the difference between a professional politician and the average man on the street. If I was asked to go on air and defend an ill-thought policy, I would probably choke, just as she did. A professional politician would have warbled on and easily deflected the fairly soft questioning and leave the listener even less enlightened.
It's why, perversely, we need more people like Bennett and less professional politicians ...
The main factors that will drive the % turnout are: (with the effect on turnout)
Postal Votes % up as it makes voting easy Individual Registration % up as the more committed will register Apathy of the young % down - only if they are registered Zeal of new converts to an insurgent party % up if UKIP energises previous DNV Apathy from Milliband effect % down - main party fatigue Despair from LibDems effect % down - main party fatigue Social reform (Gay Marriage) etc from Torys % down - main party fatigue Cleansing the register, to use Mikes phrase (which sounds ominous) % up if it has happened.
I'm not clear why cleansing the register will drive turnout up? Surely in its initial phase it is likely to force turnout down because people will forget/will not realise they have to register and aren't there also issues with students voting now (they can only register in one place?)
If capitalism is such a great system, why do we have to bail out the banks and stock markets?
It's called creative destruction... And has worked for thousands of years. Less recent busts were The Scottish Darien scheme - which caused the Scots banks to go bust, the Union and the recapitalisation of the Scots banks by the English, the 1929 Crash - where the UK banks were largely unscathed - and of course various crashes in the 19th century.
Lots of short term pain, phoenix rises from the ashes and people eventually are wealthier.
Any attempt to preserve the status quo for an inefficient system leads to lots of pain: see the USSR,
If capitalism is such a great system, why do we have to bail out the banks and stock markets?
We haven't bailed out a stock market.
If banks had been state owned, we would directly have lost billions of pounds. We will recoup much of our stake in the ba ks upon sale.
I seriously doubt it.
The banks have had the biggest bail out ever. More than shipbuilding, mining, BL, steel and railways added together.
That the subsidy hasn't been direct but has been sneaked through via taxpayer guarantees, historically low interest rates and soft loans doesn;t mean it doesn't exist, and we the taxpayers will never get the money back in any real sense.
Two questions: 1) What happened between 1997 and 2001 to drive down turnout by over 10 points? 2) Why is the recent direction of travel in NI the reverse that of everywhere else? (recent meaning since 2001)
NI demographics are changing, younger people don't buy into the Sectarian crap so much. The Alliance are nowhere and where they are don't seem to be properly capitalising. And I'll say it again and I'm sure be criticised, constituencies are gerrymandered to maintain some sort of Sectarian outcome.
Basically people don't vote in increasing numbers.
Two questions: 1) What happened between 1997 and 2001 to drive down turnout by over 10 points? 2) Why is the recent direction of travel in NI the reverse that of everywhere else? (recent meaning since 2001)
On the first one - inevitability of outcome. It was obvious to even the most politically disengeaged that Tony Blair was going to get returned. A huge yawn of an election. Great days for the Can't Be Arsed Party.
I'm puzzled by this oft-heard claim that graduates with 2:1 degrees in things like history can't get jobs. If they're from a decent university and they can pass a maths test of roughly 11+ standard, I'm gagging for them.
I managed A grades (pre A* era) in A-level Maths/Further Maths/Physics/General Studies, have an Oxford Maths degree and am about to get a First in PPE to boot. What are you gagging to give me?
The Bennett interview shows the difference between a professional politician and the average man on the street. If I was asked to go on air and defend an ill-thought policy, I would probably choke, just as she did. A professional politician would have warbled on and easily deflected the fairly soft questioning and leave the listener even less enlightened.
It's why, perversely, we need more people like Bennett and less professional politicians ...
Seems ironic to me that she was treated in the same way a man with a club treats an unwanted seal puppy.
It's called creative destruction... And has worked for thousands of years. Less recent busts were The Scottish Darien scheme - which caused the Scots banks to go bust, the Union and the recapitalisation of the Scots banks by the English,
The only banks in Great Britain in 1700 when Darien collapsed was the Bank of Scotland and the Bank of England. Neither of them suffered in any way from the Darien scheme.
Funding for the Darien scheme was by public subscription and not funded by debt (beyond that which individuals may have got themselves into with private moneylenders to over-extend their investment.
@madasafish So, if investors make a bad bet, the rest of the population pays for them to start betting again? Then once the markets are rigged, those investors can be guaranteed a return and can shaft the country by clever tax avoidance schemes? Sounds a good deal... Where can I apply, or is it mainly for those who inherited cash?
Eh? I honestly would be very surprised if turnout is higher than 2010. The scale of disillusionment with politics is off the charts.
To be honest, until a couple of years ago, I thought there was a serious chance of turnout dropping below 50%, but UKIP's rise will probably get some people who previously were planning on not voting out to the polling stations.
Two questions: 1) What happened between 1997 and 2001 to drive down turnout by over 10 points? 2) Why is the recent direction of travel in NI the reverse that of everywhere else? (recent meaning since 2001)
On the first one - inevitability of outcome. It was obvious to even the most politically disengeaged that Tony Blair was going to get returned. A huge yawn of an election. Great days for the Can't Be Arsed Party.
It was more obvious in 1997 - but I suppose there was some excitement in the new and in routing the Tories after 18 years.
The main factors that will drive the % turnout are: (with the effect on turnout)
Postal Votes % up as it makes voting easy Individual Registration % up as the more committed will register Apathy of the young % down - only if they are registered Zeal of new converts to an insurgent party % up if UKIP energises previous DNV Apathy from Milliband effect % down - main party fatigue Despair from LibDems effect % down - main party fatigue Social reform (Gay Marriage) etc from Torys % down - main party fatigue Cleansing the register, to use Mikes phrase (which sounds ominous) % up if it has happened.
I'm not clear why cleansing the register will drive turnout up? Surely in its initial phase it is likely to force turnout down because people will forget/will not realise they have to register and aren't there also issues with students voting now (they can only register in one place?)
Cleansing the register will not drive turnout up. It will drive turnout % up.
Students who turn out will now count 100%, whereas before they only counted 50%. And it's not as if they don't know where they're going to be on May 7th.
The Bennett interview shows the difference between a professional politician and the average man on the street. If I was asked to go on air and defend an ill-thought policy, I would probably choke, just as she did. A professional politician would have warbled on and easily deflected the fairly soft questioning and leave the listener even less enlightened.
It's why, perversely, we need more people like Bennett and less professional politicians ...
Disagree.
It's why we need more professional politicians and more John Humphreys/Andrew Neills/Jeremy Paxmans.
Look on it as a socratic discourse. By constant and harsh examination, an acceptable version of the truth will out.
Professional politicians are good at this. Hence the "professional" bit. They discern the crux of the issue and might obfuscate but are aware of what they are obfuscating.
Interested members of the public and leaders of the Green Party (which latter I accept is more a state of mind than anything else) do not and should rightly be dismissed.
@madasafish So, if investors make a bad bet, the rest of the population pays for them to start betting again? Then once the markets are rigged, those investors can be guaranteed a return and can shaft the country by clever tax avoidance schemes? Sounds a good deal... Where can I apply, or is it mainly for those who inherited cash?
I think you'd be a much happier person in Norway or Sweden. Colder, but happier.
ComRes for @DailyMailUK: majority (55%) think that if SNP joins coalition govt they shouldn't be allowed to decide on non-Scots laws
FPT - the Herald [Daily - so pro-SLAB if anything] is running a rather different slant from the same poll. And the wording they use is rather different. What was the original question, do you know, please? 'Non-Scots' or 'do not have an impact on Scotland'?
"More than half of voters think the SNP should be able to join a UK-wide coalition government in the event of a hung parliament in May, according to a poll.
Research by ComRes for the Daily Mail found that 57% of people would back such a move, with 37% opposed to it and 6% saying they did not know.
In the event of such an outcome in the general election, 55% said they would not want the SNP to make decisions on laws that do not have an impact on Scotland.
More than a third (38%) thought the party should be allowed to take decisions on English laws. while 7% did not know."
I know I'm a minority, but if the SNP have the MPs and can forge an agreement to join a coalition, then I see no reason why they shouldn't. After all, Scotland is a part of the UK.
However I think the actuality of them voting on UK only matters would scupper any good will very quickly for all the members of that coalition.
FPT: Thanks. Er, the SNP MPs are UK MPs and have every right to vote on UK only matters on behalf of their constituents. Or am I missing something?
No - I'm ashamed by the view taken by some, as an Englishman that some UK MPs shouldn't decide on Uk matters. Of course solely English matters are different and I'd hope Scottish MPs would abstain from those. But the big one, the UK budget is a UK matter.
Thanks. It's extraordinary that unionists should advocate such a doctrine (of Scots not being allowed to decide on UK matters) - an extremely quick way of wrecking the UK from its centre. I've seen it not just on PB but from prominent Tories and also LDs (from what I gather).
If capitalism is such a great system, why do we have to bail out the banks and stock markets?
It's called creative destruction... And has worked for thousands of years. Less recent busts were The Scottish Darien scheme - which caused the Scots banks to go bust, the Union and the recapitalisation of the Scots banks by the English, the 1929 Crash - where the UK banks were largely unscathed - and of course various crashes in the 19th century.
Lots of short term pain, phoenix rises from the ashes and people eventually are wealthier.
Any attempt to preserve the status quo for an inefficient system leads to lots of pain: see the USSR,
Quite. Capitalism isn't perfect and needs it's edges rounding off here and there. Some of us believe that, generally, less rounding off is better than more, but it's about getting that balance right.
However, remove the profit motive and it's all a lot worse, there's not much actual drive to incentivise improvement and creating anew. Trabants v Golfs being a good example.
It's a paradox that individual desire for wealth can drive up living standards for the greater good. Take away the incentives and people will do and create less which doesn't do the individual or the wider whole any good.
Paddy Power Politics @pppolitics 4m4 minutes ago GordonBennett. Natalie now 7/1 to resign before #GE2015. Next Green Party leader after Natalie Bennett: 2/1 Peter Cranie, 3/1 Caroline Lucas
One of the critiques of QE from the monetarist side of the fence is that it was continued for much longer than either necessary or desirable. Returning to a normal monetary policy (allowing interest rates to rise) would have been better from 2013 onwards than encouraging another debt-fuelled boom aimed at buying votes.
The other lesson from the global financial crisis is that it is now impossible for a medium to large consumer bank to be allowed to collapse. Has RBS or HBOS been allowed to fail, it would have opened up the rest of the banking sector to a consumer-driven panic with disastrous consequences for the economy and for public order. It's perhaps fortunate that Northern Rock happened when it did - had the measures that were put in place after that run not been in place when the likes of RBS were on the edge...
On topic, I think turnout up on 2010 - I've not seen (obviously) the changes in electoral roll numbers. It would be fascinating to know how many electors East Ham has lost to the registration process not that will have any impact other than to trim Stephen Timms' majority.
The impact of the change to registration is going to be crucial. That will surely add on a bit to the baseline so it wouldnt take much of a leap to get to 70%.
The largest estimate I can find is that 1 million people have fallen off the electoral register. If we assume that these are all non-voters, because they were registered at more than one address, or weren't likely to vote if they haven't registered to do so (and in any case it maximises the size of the effect) then the effect on the turnout figure for the last election would have been to increase the reported turnout rate of 65.1% to 66.6%.
That's a bit less than I would have guessed, so you are relying on large numbers of extra voters to go to the polls in order to get above 70%.
On the other hand, we are always told that oldies are more likely to vote and that the country is ageing - so that should mean that turnout is increasing for systemic reasons..?
Final thought - lots of 2010 Lib Dems still tell the pollsters they aren't sure how they will vote (roughly 20% compared to 10% for Lab/Con). Some of them won't be able to make up their mind, and just won't do so.
@madasafish So, if investors make a bad bet, the rest of the population pays for them to start betting again? Then once the markets are rigged, those investors can be guaranteed a return and can shaft the country by clever tax avoidance schemes? Sounds a good deal... Where can I apply, or is it mainly for those who inherited cash?
@Anorak Possibly, but you haven't made a cogent case why investment should become a risk free enterprise?
It absolutely shouldn't. I wholeheartedly agree with you there.
[A parallel point: It's why tax breaks for entrepreneurs are important - we should incentivise start-ups and genuine wealth creation, not try and claw as much as possible away after people have risked the shirt on their back to be a success.]
UKIP will be converting some previous non-voters into voters. The Greens will be encouraging some young voters who probably wouldn't otherwise have voted to the ballot box. The Scottish referendum is likely to increase quite sharply the turnout in Scotland on both sides of the fence - it was 64% in 2010 and 84% in the referendum.
I guess some Lib Dems will be lost to the electoral process and possibly some Labour and Conservative supporters from 2010 will decide that they are busy washing their hair. But all told, I expect turnout to be up quite a bit from 2010. The current spread looks just about right to me.
Thanks. It's extraordinary that unionists should advocate such a doctrine (of Scots not being allowed to decide on UK matters) - an extremely quick way of wrecking the UK from its centre. I've seen it not just on PB but from prominent Tories and also LDs (from what I gather).
I've never heard an LD esposuse this so if someone can find me a quote I'll be asuitably admonished.
Can't argue with the rationale of all UK MPs having a say on matters affecting the whole of the UK whatever their view on the continued existence of the UK in its present form. As democratically elected representatives they have a right to be in the Commons and a right to vote on such legislation if they choose.
@welshowl Good greed? as opposed to bad greed of the peasants?
I wasn't defending bankers or City types.
The same applies if your starting to make some widget in your garage say and pour your efforts into it in the hope of becoming much better off individually. You can be a "peasant" and do that and if you succeed good luck to you. You deserve it. The rest of us can then enjoy the wider benefits of your widget.
Greed is good in that sense. Though I was trying to avoid using the word as it's so associated with the Gekko's of this world.
If capitalism is such a great system, why do we have to bail out the banks and stock markets?
We haven't bailed out a stock market.
If banks had been state owned, we would directly have lost billions of pounds. We will recoup much of our stake in the ba ks upon sale.
We bailed out the people to whom the banks owed money, i.e. their depositors.
The shareholders lost 100% of their money in the cases of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, 95% of their money in the case of RBS, and 90% in the case of Lloyds TSB. (And Lloyds only needed a bail out because the government strong armed them into buying HBOS.) In the case of Lloyds, the tax payer is already in profit, and it is likely a profit will be made in RBS too.
The Bennett interview shows the difference between a professional politician and the average man on the street. If I was asked to go on air and defend an ill-thought policy, I would probably choke, just as she did. A professional politician would have warbled on and easily deflected the fairly soft questioning and leave the listener even less enlightened.
It's why, perversely, we need more people like Bennett and less professional politicians ...
Disagree.
It's why we need more professional politicians and more John Humphreys/Andrew Neills/Jeremy Paxmans.
Look on it as a socratic discourse. By constant and harsh examination, an acceptable version of the truth will out.
Professional politicians are good at this. Hence the "professional" bit. They discern the crux of the issue and might obfuscate but are aware of what they are obfuscating.
Interested members of the public and leaders of the Green Party (which latter I accept is more a state of mind than anything else) do not and should rightly be dismissed.
Hmmm. With apologies to OGH, the media and press are generally venal, corrupt and complacent about the truth. Politicians are paragons of virtue in comparison.
I also feel to see why a politician who is 'obfuscating' for a bad policy they do not understand is any way a good thing.
I should perhaps have put a smiley at the end of my first post, because it was in half-jest. But only half.
I agree with the "sell" consensus. I'm finding firm Lab, firm Con, firm UKIP and firm dunno/don't cares. The last group don't feel to me as though they're planning to vote at all.
@rcs1000 No, the investors in the bank still had shares in them, the shares were adjusted to reflect the banks true value, so they never had that amount of value in the first place. If the bank had been allowed to fail, they would have lost all their money, which would have been natural capitalism. What we have is a betting system that is backstopped against losses.
The Bennett interview shows the difference between a professional politician and the average man on the street. If I was asked to go on air and defend an ill-thought policy, I would probably choke, just as she did. A professional politician would have warbled on and easily deflected the fairly soft questioning and leave the listener even less enlightened.
It's why, perversely, we need more people like Bennett and less professional politicians ...
Disagree.
It's why we need more professional politicians and more John Humphreys/Andrew Neills/Jeremy Paxmans.
Look on it as a socratic discourse. By constant and harsh examination, an acceptable version of the truth will out.
Professional politicians are good at this. Hence the "professional" bit. They discern the crux of the issue and might obfuscate but are aware of what they are obfuscating.
Interested members of the public and leaders of the Green Party (which latter I accept is more a state of mind than anything else) do not and should rightly be dismissed.
Hmmm. With apologies to OGH, the media and press are generally venal, corrupt and complacent about the truth. Politicians are paragons of virtue in comparison.
I also feel to see why a politician who is 'obfuscating' for a bad policy they do not understand is any way a good thing.
I should perhaps have put a smiley at the end of my first post, because it was in half-jest. But only half.
I think that John, Andrew or Jeremy (or Nick) would expose a bad policy that their interviewee didn't understand. As happened today.
That was my point: generally professional politicians understand the policies ("bad" or "good") that they are proposing and the key is to understand what that policy is. The media can do a good job of this.
A member of the public or leader of the Greens who doesn't understand the policy in the first place (apart from to say: "we want everyone to be happy") does not belong in the political arena.
I agree with the "sell" consensus. I'm finding firm Lab, firm Con, firm UKIP and firm dunno/don't cares. The last group don't feel to me as though they're planning to vote at all.
Thanks Nick. I guess the crucial betting question is - are the dunno/don't cares on the electoral register in greater or lesser numbers than in previous elections?
It is very funny to see an ex member of Guardian's editorial elite demonstrate that they do not know what they are fecking talking about. A good day to bury a bad politicians career. Chuck in the europhile Rifkind and its two down and lots to go.
This kind of business needs squelching and it's good to see it happening. It's wicked.
yes agree because now all those people who needed the money will just stop needing it and not go anywhere else, say, oh I don't know, somewhere unlicensed.
@rcs1000 No, the investors in the bank still had shares in them, the shares were adjusted to reflect the banks true value, so they never had that amount of value in the first place. If the bank had been allowed to fail, they would have lost all their money, which would have been natural capitalism. What we have is a betting system that is backstopped against losses.
This kind of business needs squelching and it's good to see it happening. It's wicked.
yes agree because now all those people who needed the money will just stop needing it and not go anywhere else, say, oh I don't know, somewhere unlicensed.
Maybe they will be forced to learn better money management?
If capitalism is such a great system, why do we have to bail out the banks and stock markets?
We haven't bailed out a stock market.
If banks had been state owned, we would directly have lost billions of pounds. We will recoup much of our stake in the ba ks upon sale.
We bailed out the people to whom the banks owed money, i.e. their depositors.
The shareholders lost 100% of their money in the cases of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, 95% of their money in the case of RBS, and 90% in the case of Lloyds TSB. (And Lloyds only needed a bail out because the government strong armed them into buying HBOS.) In the case of Lloyds, the tax payer is already in profit, and it is likely a profit will be made in RBS too.
I struggle to see how the taxpayer will make a profit from RBS. It is still a business in turmoil.
If capitalism is such a great system, why do we have to bail out the banks and stock markets?
We haven't bailed out a stock market.
If banks had been state owned, we would directly have lost billions of pounds. We will recoup much of our stake in the ba ks upon sale.
We bailed out the people to whom the banks owed money, i.e. their depositors.
The shareholders lost 100% of their money in the cases of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, 95% of their money in the case of RBS, and 90% in the case of Lloyds TSB. (And Lloyds only needed a bail out because the government strong armed them into buying HBOS.) In the case of Lloyds, the tax payer is already in profit, and it is likely a profit will be made in RBS too.
I struggle to see how the taxpayer will make a profit from RBS. It is still a business in turmoil.
The tax payer paid £5/share for RBS. The current price is £4. The company makes c. 33p profit per year, so just "adding the profit" gets us to £5 in three years.
This kind of business needs squelching and it's good to see it happening. It's wicked.
yes agree because now all those people who needed the money will just stop needing it and not go anywhere else, say, oh I don't know, somewhere unlicensed.
Maybe they will be forced to learn better money management?
@rcs1000 And of course, once the bank is sorted with public money and returned to profit, it needs to be sold of to the private investors who furucked it in the first place?
@rcs1000 No, the investors in the bank still had shares in them, the shares were adjusted to reflect the banks true value, so they never had that amount of value in the first place. If the bank had been allowed to fail, they would have lost all their money, which would have been natural capitalism. What we have is a betting system that is backstopped against losses.
Could you just fill me on what would have happened to the people to whom RBS owed money to - i.e. the depositors - in the event that it went bust.
If capitalism is such a great system, why do we have to bail out the banks and stock markets?
We haven't bailed out a stock market.
If banks had been state owned, we would directly have lost billions of pounds. We will recoup much of our stake in the ba ks upon sale.
We bailed out the people to whom the banks owed money, i.e. their depositors.
The shareholders lost 100% of their money in the cases of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, 95% of their money in the case of RBS, and 90% in the case of Lloyds TSB. (And Lloyds only needed a bail out because the government strong armed them into buying HBOS.) In the case of Lloyds, the tax payer is already in profit, and it is likely a profit will be made in RBS too.
I struggle to see how the taxpayer will make a profit from RBS. It is still a business in turmoil.
The tax payer paid £5/share for RBS. The current price is £4. The company makes c. 33p profit per year, so just "adding the profit" gets us to £5 in three years.
RBS doesn't pay dividends, and my personal belief is that they still have a lot of undeclared bad debt. Regardless once you add in other costs associated with purchasing the shares the break even price is probably higher, though this is not my area of expertise so I'm couldn't say how much higher.
We'll see how well the Williams and Glynn sale goes...
This kind of business needs squelching and it's good to see it happening. It's wicked.
yes agree because now all those people who needed the money will just stop needing it and not go anywhere else, say, oh I don't know, somewhere unlicensed.
Maybe they will be forced to learn better money management?
ah if only everything were that simple.
I don't think piling very high interest debt onto people with debt/credit problems is a good for those people. It just relieves short term pressure and builds up longer term issues. Look at Greece as a classic example of this.
I agree with the "sell" consensus. I'm finding firm Lab, firm Con, firm UKIP and firm dunno/don't cares. The last group don't feel to me as though they're planning to vote at all.
Thanks Nick. I guess the crucial betting question is - are the dunno/don't cares on the electoral register in greater or lesser numbers than in previous elections?
I get a bit of a sense of coalition politics having potentially adversely affected turnout. There is a terminally frustrated group who rail that "you're all the same" - and they rail because now it is increasingly likely they can't change anything by voting. However they vote, these folks are angry that they can't change the Government. They'll still get a weak and neutered lead party, hobbled by the LibDems imposing a wishy-washy nothingness.
If capitalism is such a great system, why do we have to bail out the banks and stock markets?
We haven't bailed out a stock market.
If banks had been state owned, we would directly have lost billions of pounds. We will recoup much of our stake in the ba ks upon sale.
We bailed out the people to whom the banks owed money, i.e. their depositors.
The shareholders lost 100% of their money in the cases of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, 95% of their money in the case of RBS, and 90% in the case of Lloyds TSB. (And Lloyds only needed a bail out because the government strong armed them into buying HBOS.) In the case of Lloyds, the tax payer is already in profit, and it is likely a profit will be made in RBS too.
I struggle to see how the taxpayer will make a profit from RBS. It is still a business in turmoil.
The tax payer paid £5/share for RBS. The current price is £4. The company makes c. 33p profit per year, so just "adding the profit" gets us to £5 in three years.
RBS doesn't pay dividends, and my personal belief is that they still have a lot of undeclared bad debt. Regardless once you add in other costs associated with purchasing the shares the break even price is probably higher, though this is not my area of expertise so I'm couldn't say how much higher.
We'll see how well the Williams and Glynn sale goes...
RBS will continue to accrue capital internally, until tier one is - say - 12%. It will then dividend out profits. (As is true of pretty much every bank in the UK, Europe and the US.)
We know what the level of non-performing loans (i.e. people not paying interest or keeping up with principal repayments) in the RBS loan book is, and it really isn't that high.
You are essentially taking the view that management is lying.
@rcs1000 In the capatilist system you advocate ( allegedly) they would have lost money for banking with a bunch of crooks. But you are only interested in a specialized form of capitalism where failure is not an option. I know you are mainly into banking, but would you like to explain to the good folks on here what happened when the companies called in the liabilities of the "names"? If you are clueless, look it up.
If capitalism is such a great system, why do we have to bail out the banks and stock markets?
We haven't bailed out a stock market.
If banks had been state owned, we would directly have lost billions of pounds. We will recoup much of our stake in the ba ks upon sale.
We bailed out the people to whom the banks owed money, i.e. their depositors.
The shareholders lost 100% of their money in the cases of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, 95% of their money in the case of RBS, and 90% in the case of Lloyds TSB. (And Lloyds only needed a bail out because the government strong armed them into buying HBOS.) In the case of Lloyds, the tax payer is already in profit, and it is likely a profit will be made in RBS too.
I struggle to see how the taxpayer will make a profit from RBS. It is still a business in turmoil.
The tax payer paid £5/share for RBS. The current price is £4. The company makes c. 33p profit per year, so just "adding the profit" gets us to £5 in three years.
If capitalism is such a great system, why do we have to bail out the banks and stock markets?
We haven't bailed out a stock market.
If banks had been state owned, we would directly have lost billions of pounds. We will recoup much of our stake in the ba ks upon sale.
We bailed out the people to whom the banks owed money, i.e. their depositors.
The shareholders lost 100% of their money in the cases of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, 95% of their money in the case of RBS, and 90% in the case of Lloyds TSB. (And Lloyds only needed a bail out because the government strong armed them into buying HBOS.) In the case of Lloyds, the tax payer is already in profit, and it is likely a profit will be made in RBS too.
I struggle to see how the taxpayer will make a profit from RBS. It is still a business in turmoil.
The tax payer paid £5/share for RBS. The current price is £4. The company makes c. 33p profit per year, so just "adding the profit" gets us to £5 in three years.
Time Value of Money - TVM.
The British government pays 1.8% for 10 year money - so I don't think that's going to affect the equation very much.
In a sane world, anyone who can't understand that a bank bailout is a bailout of the bank's customers rather than its owners should, for their own sake, not be allowed to handle money.
This kind of business needs squelching and it's good to see it happening. It's wicked.
yes agree because now all those people who needed the money will just stop needing it and not go anywhere else, say, oh I don't know, somewhere unlicensed.
Maybe they will be forced to learn better money management?
ah if only everything were that simple.
I don't think piling very high interest debt onto people with debt/credit problems is a good for those people. It just relieves short term pressure and builds up longer term issues. Look at Greece as a classic example of this.
Borrowing £20 on a Tuesday and paying back £25 on a Friday may be a penal rate of interest but it provides an often important filip for some people and shouldn't necessarily be seen in terms of APR.
What else are they going to do?
Oh yes, reform themselves and not run out of money by Tuesday.
I agree the more egregious examples of interest accumulation need to be addressed.
In a sane world, anyone who can't understand that a bank bailout is a bailout of the bank's customers rather than its owners should, for their own sake, not be allowed to handle money.
I think we may have a co-op board member posting here....
@rcs1000 In the capatilist system you advocate ( allegedly) they would have lost money for banking with a bunch of crooks. But you are only interested in a specialized form of capitalism where failure is not an option. I know you are mainly into banking, but would you like to explain to the good folks on here what happened when the companies called in the liabilities of the "names"? If you are clueless, look it up.
I presume you're talking about the Lloyds insurance market, which has historically been funded by "names".
There was no government bail out of the insurance market, so I really have no idea what you're talking about.
You keep saying banks should have been allowed to fail.
Now; imagine that John Smith Software Ltd banked with RBS. RBS has been allowed to fail. It's in adminstration. How does John Smith Software Ltd pay its staff at the end of the month?
£75,000 deposit insurance won't help it, if its monthly wage bill is £200k.
In a sane world, anyone who can't understand that a bank bailout is a bailout of the bank's customers rather than its owners should, for their own sake, not be allowed to handle money.
I think we may have a co-op board member posting here....
It's probably the Reverend himself. Pass the Crack pipe.
@rcs1000 In the capatilist system you advocate ( allegedly) they would have lost money for banking with a bunch of crooks. But you are only interested in a specialized form of capitalism where failure is not an option. I know you are mainly into banking, but would you like to explain to the good folks on here what happened when the companies called in the liabilities of the "names"? If you are clueless, look it up.
Again I don't know what you are on about - many names lost everything as that was the risk they took on (crazily of course) but being a 'name' was akin to having your monies with Equitable Life in tems of 'branding' then.
@rcs1000 In the capatilist system you advocate ( allegedly) they would have lost money for banking with a bunch of crooks. But you are only interested in a specialized form of capitalism where failure is not an option. I know you are mainly into banking, but would you like to explain to the good folks on here what happened when the companies called in the liabilities of the "names"? If you are clueless, look it up.
I presume you're talking about the Lloyds insurance market, which has historically been funded by "names".
There was no government bail out of the insurance market, so I really have no idea what you're talking about.
You keep saying banks should have been allowed to fail.
Now; imagine that John Smith Software Ltd banked with RBS. RBS has been allowed to fail. It's in adminstration. How does John Smith Software Ltd pay its staff at the end of the month?
£75,000 deposit insurance won't help it, if its monthly wage bill is £200k.
@rcs1000 In the capatilist system you advocate ( allegedly) they would have lost money for banking with a bunch of crooks. But you are only interested in a specialized form of capitalism where failure is not an option. I know you are mainly into banking, but would you like to explain to the good folks on here what happened when the companies called in the liabilities of the "names"? If you are clueless, look it up.
I presume you're talking about the Lloyds insurance market, which has historically been funded by "names".
There was no government bail out of the insurance market, so I really have no idea what you're talking about.
You keep saying banks should have been allowed to fail.
Now; imagine that John Smith Software Ltd banked with RBS. RBS has been allowed to fail. It's in adminstration. How does John Smith Software Ltd pay its staff at the end of the month?
£75,000 deposit insurance won't help it, if its monthly wage bill is £200k.
Comments
I'd say 65 much more likely
SELL!!! SELL!!!
(If anyone disagrees I will play, can't get on w Spin)
1) What happened between 1997 and 2001 to drive down turnout by over 10 points?
2) Why is the recent direction of travel in NI the reverse that of everywhere else? (recent meaning since 2001)
On the day (presuming SPIN keep their markets open) I could see this creeping up to mid-70%
That will be the time to sell this bet.
The reality is that the major parties can not and probably do not want to offer an inspiring offering but instead a largely statist bureaucratic offering. Its not the sort of thing to bring the voters out in their masses and frankly Cameron and Miliband are not Obama material either. As a result If the major parties and their media outlets can also talk down the lesser parties as they no doubt will try then turnout could be even below last time simply because there will be precious little to attract them.
Basically people don't vote in increasing numbers.
The fixed line is usually lower than the spread mid but I guess here the upside is bigger with the sell, so it may not be like goals and runs
But seems v odd to me to fix the mid so much higher than the previous three elections, I don't think its a time to be clever clever, just look at the last three in the thread header!
Postal Votes % up as it makes voting easy
Individual Registration % up as the more committed will register
Apathy of the young % down - only if they are registered
Zeal of new converts to an insurgent party % up if UKIP energises previous DNV
Apathy from Milliband effect % down - main party fatigue
Despair from LibDems effect % down - main party fatigue
Social reform (Gay Marriage) etc from Torys % down - main party fatigue
Cleansing the register, to use Mikes phrase (which sounds ominous) % up if it has happened.
If banks had been state owned, we would directly have lost billions of pounds. We will recoup much of our stake in the ba ks upon sale.
I was on the other side of that bet!
The Bennett interview shows the difference between a professional politician and the average man on the street. If I was asked to go on air and defend an ill-thought policy, I would probably choke, just as she did. A professional politician would have warbled on and easily deflected the fairly soft questioning and leave the listener even less enlightened.
It's why, perversely, we need more people like Bennett and less professional politicians ...
Lots of short term pain, phoenix rises from the ashes and people eventually are wealthier.
Any attempt to preserve the status quo for an inefficient system leads to lots of pain: see the USSR,
The banks have had the biggest bail out ever. More than shipbuilding, mining, BL, steel and railways added together.
That the subsidy hasn't been direct but has been sneaked through via taxpayer guarantees, historically low interest rates and soft loans doesn;t mean it doesn't exist, and we the taxpayers will never get the money back in any real sense.
Funding for the Darien scheme was by public subscription and not funded by debt (beyond that which individuals may have got themselves into with private moneylenders to over-extend their investment.
So, if investors make a bad bet, the rest of the population pays for them to start betting again?
Then once the markets are rigged, those investors can be guaranteed a return and can shaft the country by clever tax avoidance schemes?
Sounds a good deal... Where can I apply, or is it mainly for those who inherited cash?
To be honest, until a couple of years ago, I thought there was a serious chance of turnout dropping below 50%, but UKIP's rise will probably get some people who previously were planning on not voting out to the polling stations.
Students who turn out will now count 100%, whereas before they only counted 50%. And it's not as if they don't know where they're going to be on May 7th.
It's why we need more professional politicians and more John Humphreys/Andrew Neills/Jeremy Paxmans.
Look on it as a socratic discourse. By constant and harsh examination, an acceptable version of the truth will out.
Professional politicians are good at this. Hence the "professional" bit. They discern the crux of the issue and might obfuscate but are aware of what they are obfuscating.
Interested members of the public and leaders of the Green Party (which latter I accept is more a state of mind than anything else) do not and should rightly be dismissed.
Possibly, but you haven't made a cogent case why investment should become a risk free enterprise?
However, remove the profit motive and it's all a lot worse, there's not much actual drive to incentivise improvement and creating anew. Trabants v Golfs being a good example.
It's a paradox that individual desire for wealth can drive up living standards for the greater good. Take away the incentives and people will do and create less which doesn't do the individual or the wider whole any good.
GordonBennett. Natalie now 7/1 to resign before #GE2015. Next Green Party leader after Natalie Bennett: 2/1 Peter Cranie, 3/1 Caroline Lucas
One of the critiques of QE from the monetarist side of the fence is that it was continued for much longer than either necessary or desirable. Returning to a normal monetary policy (allowing interest rates to rise) would have been better from 2013 onwards than encouraging another debt-fuelled boom aimed at buying votes.
The other lesson from the global financial crisis is that it is now impossible for a medium to large consumer bank to be allowed to collapse. Has RBS or HBOS been allowed to fail, it would have opened up the rest of the banking sector to a consumer-driven panic with disastrous consequences for the economy and for public order. It's perhaps fortunate that Northern Rock happened when it did - had the measures that were put in place after that run not been in place when the likes of RBS were on the edge...
On topic, I think turnout up on 2010 - I've not seen (obviously) the changes in electoral roll numbers. It would be fascinating to know how many electors East Ham has lost to the registration process not that will have any impact other than to trim Stephen Timms' majority.
That's a bit less than I would have guessed, so you are relying on large numbers of extra voters to go to the polls in order to get above 70%.
On the other hand, we are always told that oldies are more likely to vote and that the country is ageing - so that should mean that turnout is increasing for systemic reasons..?
Final thought - lots of 2010 Lib Dems still tell the pollsters they aren't sure how they will vote (roughly 20% compared to 10% for Lab/Con). Some of them won't be able to make up their mind, and just won't do so.
Tails the taxpayer loses
Just like in privatisation
[A parallel point: It's why tax breaks for entrepreneurs are important - we should incentivise start-ups and genuine wealth creation, not try and claw as much as possible away after people have risked the shirt on their back to be a success.]
Good greed? as opposed to bad greed of the peasants?
I guess some Lib Dems will be lost to the electoral process and possibly some Labour and Conservative supporters from 2010 will decide that they are busy washing their hair. But all told, I expect turnout to be up quite a bit from 2010. The current spread looks just about right to me.
All systems have their faults, what I can't stand is the jihadist capitalists who believe their system is the only "true way"
Can't argue with the rationale of all UK MPs having a say on matters affecting the whole of the UK whatever their view on the continued existence of the UK in its present form. As democratically elected representatives they have a right to be in the Commons and a right to vote on such legislation if they choose.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31603152
This kind of business needs squelching and it's good to see it happening. It's wicked.
The same applies if your starting to make some widget in your garage say and pour your efforts into it in the hope of becoming much better off individually. You can be a "peasant" and do that and if you succeed good luck to you. You deserve it. The rest of us can then enjoy the wider benefits of your widget.
Greed is good in that sense. Though I was trying to avoid using the word as it's so associated with the Gekko's of this world.
The shareholders lost 100% of their money in the cases of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, 95% of their money in the case of RBS, and 90% in the case of Lloyds TSB. (And Lloyds only needed a bail out because the government strong armed them into buying HBOS.) In the case of Lloyds, the tax payer is already in profit, and it is likely a profit will be made in RBS too.
I also feel to see why a politician who is 'obfuscating' for a bad policy they do not understand is any way a good thing.
I should perhaps have put a smiley at the end of my first post, because it was in half-jest. But only half.
No, the investors in the bank still had shares in them, the shares were adjusted to reflect the banks true value, so they never had that amount of value in the first place.
If the bank had been allowed to fail, they would have lost all their money, which would have been natural capitalism.
What we have is a betting system that is backstopped against losses.
That was my point: generally professional politicians understand the policies ("bad" or "good") that they are proposing and the key is to understand what that policy is. The media can do a good job of this.
A member of the public or leader of the Greens who doesn't understand the policy in the first place (apart from to say: "we want everyone to be happy") does not belong in the political arena.
IMO.
Edit: oh - that's a flash smiley...
So in your world, the minority is right and should make the rules?
http://www.ncpolitics.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Turnout-1024x529.jpg
https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll.aspx?oItemId=61
And of course, once the bank is sorted with public money and returned to profit, it needs to be sold of to the private investors who furucked it in the first place?
Thank you.
We'll see how well the Williams and Glynn sale goes...
Coalition politics has killed Buggins's Turn.
We know what the level of non-performing loans (i.e. people not paying interest or keeping up with principal repayments) in the RBS loan book is, and it really isn't that high.
You are essentially taking the view that management is lying.
In the capatilist system you advocate ( allegedly) they would have lost money for banking with a bunch of crooks.
But you are only interested in a specialized form of capitalism where failure is not an option.
I know you are mainly into banking, but would you like to explain to the good folks on here what happened when the companies called in the liabilities of the "names"?
If you are clueless, look it up.
What else are they going to do?
Oh yes, reform themselves and not run out of money by Tuesday.
I agree the more egregious examples of interest accumulation need to be addressed.
There was no government bail out of the insurance market, so I really have no idea what you're talking about.
You keep saying banks should have been allowed to fail.
Now; imagine that John Smith Software Ltd banked with RBS. RBS has been allowed to fail. It's in adminstration. How does John Smith Software Ltd pay its staff at the end of the month?
£75,000 deposit insurance won't help it, if its monthly wage bill is £200k.