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Today PB celebrates its 20th birthday – politicalbetting.com

Today marks the 20th birthday of Politicalbetting and also my retirement from the site.
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ALTHOUGH rumor has it, that Smithson the Younger DOES covet that cosy-looking chair . . .
Long time ago now!
I dread to think how many hours I've spent on PB over the years, but that is a measure of how good the site is, and the community it has gathered together above and below the line.
Here's to the next 20 years.
Including ourselves.
Perhaps we should all boast of at least one great prediction we made and admit one great mistake.
Many happy returns to PB.
Whatever happened to him?
Is your son rcs1000 the software engineer?
The site has been always been informative, funny, weird, strange and a life saver at times and is always my go-to each day as if something important is happening (not Leon’s holidays) the chances are you will hear about it on this site before any news site.
This is a brilliant site which is mostly partisan-free. How rare is that online these days?
Wishing you all the best with your health, and I hope you know what an amazing thing you created, and that TSE and Robert are continuing in its unique spirit.
ETA: hang on, did I really join in 2015?!
Very best wishes for your health.
I’ve been a frequent reader if infrequent contributor but have thoroughly enjoyed it none the less.
Good luck with your health.
Let's hope for lots of houses, infrastructure, 5G masts, FTTP etc. Vital.
My warmest wishes to you OGH.
Good luck for the future
A great way to lose the support of eco-socialists.
Thank you for PB. 🧡
Hopefully we can all still behave without your guiding OGH presence!!
Congrats and thanks to OGH and the team!
Best wishes and thanks.
Wishing you all the best in retirement.
(I won't even hold against you that I have just been de-threaded - AGAIN, by this announcement. PB should clearly have been started one day earlier. My "get the last post" skills seem to be better than my "get the first comment" skills at present.)
Leon
Horse
Ishmael
Any other contenders ?
https://help.uis.cam.ac.uk/service/accounts-passwords/your-crsid
Sad to hear the news about your health but as one of the "old guard" on here, it's been a pleasure to be a small part of PB and thinking back to the very early days before the 2005 election, the site and the world were very different places.
Thank you for having the inspiration to take this on and take it forward - the BBQ on the terrace of the National Liberal Club a real highlight. Gladstone was perhaps yet again the hope of the "stern unbending (PB)Tories" that evening.
Hmmm.
Thank you for everything, and please stay well and look after yourself.
Good luck in your retirement and may your health allow you to enjoy it. You deserve no less.
From then on, rcs1000 has been my Internet id.
The shares for men put the Tories in third:
CON 17%
LAB 41%
LDM 10%
GRN 7%
RFM 19%
The Tories are saved by the shares from women, which are:
CON 21%
LAB 46%
LDM 9%
GRN 8%
RFM 12%
Left whilst still alive
@RodCrosby (Holocaust remarks)
@isam (argued with hosts, since returned)
@antifrank aka @AlistairMeeks (argued with others, now blog author)
@Charles (argued with others),
@TissuePrice (works in a big shed somewhere)
@SeanT (left, never to return)
@IshmaelZ (argued with others)
@MrEd (argued with hosts, thought to have returned)
@CorrectHorseBattery (argued with others, thought to have returned)
Left on death
@SBS (died 2009)
@PLATO (died 2017estimated)
@MARKSENIOR (died 2017)
@CALUM (died 2019)
@NICHOMAR (died 2021)
There have been others which I can't recall, and I know that at least one other has died, so if anybody can add more names I would be grateful.
I just want to say the most enormous thank you to Mike for creating and running PB which has provided so much interest and enjoyment. There's no need to ever be bored again - you can always check what's being said on PB.
Very best wishes for your retirement.
So I must have been top dog.
(Not really. Aber had a system - last number of the year for undergrads, last two numbers for postgrads, initials only for staff. As I was all of them in turn, I therefore added and subtracted numbers like a mathematician on crack.)
The trusty old Lab/LD/Green vs Con/Ref measure is 61-34 with YouGov, 59-36 with More In Common this evening and 57-37 with the latest Savanta.
More In Common has the Conservatives at 25%, their lowest rating ever. There have been eight polls since the previous More In Common, two have had the Conservatives at 26% (Savanta and Survation), all the others have been 25% or lower.
I did find this one about JackW's retirement from the site - in 2007!
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/oct/24/1
Meanwhile we pedants can wonder what “literally most” actually means….
It’s been a privilege to comment on this site these past 15, sorry 9, sorry 4, sorry 2 and a half, sorry 2 years. It really is like a pub except the locals wear terrifying masks and Hitler occasionally plays the piano
Its also kept me sane and prevented me dying of loneliness on long foreign trips - such as this one right now
Cheers to all of us, mods and commenters, anarchists and atheists, kippers and Communists, lurkers, lefties, LadyGs and lunatics, from the hot and cloudy jungles of Colombia
All great losses and Plato was particularly sad as it was well before her time and she just disappeared down an extreme rabbit hole - didn't get medical help when she needed it.
I often wonder about this. It seems frankly improbable after 20 years that more of us haven't died. And in most cases, people will just occasionally think, huh, poster x hasn't posted in a while - I wonder if he's still with us? And that will be that.
Is Jack W still with us? Or Alastair Matlock?