Just 1 in 5 Labour members want Andy Burnham to appoint Ed Miliband as Chancellor -politicalbetting
Just 1 in 5 Labour members want Andy Burnham to appoint Ed Miliband as Chancellor – politicalbetting.com
Who do Labour members want Andy Burnham to pick as chancellor?Ed Miliband: 21%Rachel Reeves: 20%Wes Streeting: 6%Darren Jones: 5%Yvette Cooper: 5%Other: 13%Don't know/no preference: 30%yougov.com/en-gb/articl…
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{Puts bin on head}
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j2n2dxnv2o
"The small town about to hold a referendum on its future."
A bit of a condescending headline, mind.
What I find surprising is that 20% want Rachel to remain there...
Ready yourself for an Ed Miliband budget.
Ed 10: "Ed Ten standing by."
Ed 7: "Ed Seven standing by."
Ed 3: "Ed Three standing by."
Ed Four: "Ed Four standing by."
Ed Six: "Ed Six standing by."
Ed 9: "Ed Nine standing by."
Ed 2: "Ed Two standing by."
Ed 11: "Ed Eleven standing by."
Ed 5: "Ed Five standing by."
Now granted I would have been putting 2-3p on income tax but it would have raised a shed load of money from April 2025 and that would have avoided all the problems that she then created by hitting employer NI the way she did.
So yes Reeves needs to go so Burnham starts with a fresh slate..
Ah, that's who Luke Worley is. One of the people who've said they'll stand against Farage is Luke Worley, a local who was on Married at First Sight. Oh yes, he was a bit fighty and had to be taken off. I think he might have a chance of finishing ahead of Count Binface.
I don't see the condescension.
How scared is Farage about losing Clacton - there would still be 1/2 weeks after Manchester to campaign in Clacton. This seems to imply that it's a binary choice and the bin could win...
It is more likely for Count Binface to win the Clacton By-election (7/2) than it is for England to win the World Cup (9/2) 🤯
I despise the man with a passion, but he is very good. I can't help thinking you Tories missed a trick dumping him for Badenoch. Now, he is never going to get my vote but on current narrative, neither would she.
He's very angry about Burnham not calling an election. Did he call one when he left the Tories?
Can’t help thinking 7/2 is a little short though, obviously weight of money in the last 24 hours.
As an aside, at the moment there are no female candidates declared, though Rejoin EU and the Monster Raving Loonies have both said they intend to stand a candidate, but haven't given a name yet. So the by-election could end up being Farage's Vanity Sausage Fest.
To me, the headline implies "Even an insignificant place like Bingley gets to hold a referendum. How quaint."
Anyhow, I shall be spoiling my ballot. The local Punjabi community* will be doing likewise.
*Wor Lass.
"At present, only the novelty candidate Count Binface and the former actor Laurence Fox, leader of the rightwing Reclaim party, have announced they will stand against Farage."
Meanwhile Wikipedia have:
"Farage announced that he would stand again for Reform UK in the by-election as part of his resignation speech.[1] Count Binface, a novelty and perennial candidate portrayed by a comedian, announced his intention to stand, and the Monster Raving Loony Party, a satirical party, announced their intention to field a candidate.[25] Reclaim Party leader Laurence Fox also announced via X (formerly Twitter) that he would stand, seeking to "elevate the Fight on the Right", according to The Independent.[25] Rejoin EU announced via X that they were looking for a candidate to stand in the election.[26] Adham Alkhatip announced that they would stand for the Forward Party.[27] Ollie Granger, a television professional, has announced that he was seeking to stand as an independent candidate.[28] The British Democrats announced they were standing candidate Kai Stephens.[29][non-primary source needed] Former reality TV star Luke Worley announced he would stand as an independent [30]"
Even complete with references so that a person can check their sources (the Guardian is awful about linking to sources). Remember when we used to ridicule papers that used Wikipedia as a source? And now it would improve their reporting if they used Wikipedia rather than relying solely on twitter (although one of the declarations they missed is from twitter). Even one of the Wikipedia sources is a BBC article!
I don't think Farage is that worried about losing, but I do think that he'd find a record low turnout and receiving four figures of votes embarrassing, and he wants to make sure turnout is encouraged. I'd guess the key period for postal votes would probably be before polling day in Greater Manchester?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSeFxzeo5Ts
Have I ever mentioned I tipped Ed Miliband to be next Chancellor at 33/1?
https://www.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2025/12/20/ed-miliband-is-33-1-to-be-the-next-chancellor/
Factions may appoint leaders of other factions to top jobs, but keep them away from the economics, so your own faction controls the economics. If a leader had to appoint someone from rival faction Chancellor - like Burnham appoint Reeves, like Liz Truss have Hunt foisted upon her - its actually sign of weakness of their grip on the party.
The poll TSE has put in the header should be viewed by us as evidence of a divided, factionally split party. Economically split between left and right, as always been Labours DNA, but also factional splits based on ambitious personalities having little mafia of friends and supporters around them.
What might take bookies by surprise is ordinary punters including Farage in multiple bets but even that is hard now that most betting is online (even in shops via terminals).
ETA Hills also ignore that most of their rivals have Count Binface at 9/2 or 5/1 against. Hills' 7/2 is the shortest price in the village. Reform 1/6 the longest.
https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/clacton-by-election
It seems Reform are now abandoning GM.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/09/reform-activists-manchester-farage-clacton-byelection-contest
I was frequently assured Burnham standing for Parliament was handing GM to Reform.
Good song but not even near the top 100.
Harmless if somewhat odd.
Edit - although in the context is he saying Ed is Red?
Appropriate for a man with his memoirs that he joined many other fukkers…
Eugenics meets genetic modification.
Canvassers. Media. Ordinary people coming out to see what all the fuss is about.
It’s traders in Southend will be sobbing into their pints.
Although I think 633 Squadron was the closest match to the Death Star sequence?
Airplane is one for the few films I remember lots of quotes from, bizarrely.
Surely you can't be serious, I hear you say...
FWIW I much prefer Walton. Of the three main places in the constituency I'd choose to live there - nice enough, no airs and graces, decent beach. Clacton I find a bit of a dive though the beach is quite good. The last time I was there I stood out because I was about 10 tattoos short of the average.
More seriously, what all three places have is an overabundance of just about comfortable but not wealthy pensioners, who'd like the world returned to the imagined perfection of their 1950s and 1960s childhoods. The sorts of people who have moved away from Romford because it 'ain't what is used to be'. There is poverty, not just in Jaywick but also in parts of Clacton, but also a lot of people doing average sorts of jobs on not especially good money who aren't necessarily as uniform or as firmly behind Reform as the pensioner bloc vote.
And don’t call me Shirley!
https://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/10333327.Monster_Raving_Loony_becomes_a_Conservative/
He was good value on pb as he'd experienced a lot of campaigns and counts on the losing side so knew how the system worked.
I can remember, in the days of pub juke boxes....
As usual, this defines "the best music"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNdb03Hw18M
I would want at least 10-1, and probably more like 15-1 to play.
Now, if Lowe's lot had stood, it might have been possible: I could see him skewering Farage and peeling off 15% of the Reform vote.
But without him, there are a bunch of no hopers (including Binface), and it would require something truly extraordinary for him to come through the middle. Not impossible (hence 15-1), but something pretty uncommon.
It can be done.
For (fairly obvious reasons) Count Binface is that candidate. Add on the fact people will happily play along with a joke and it's possible to see the Count winning.
You could also argue that without Lowe standing there is no reason to actually go and vote which is why Farage seems desperately trying to get canvassers so he gets people to actually vote.
Finally I also suspect the Count would do a better job for the people of Clacton than Farage has and he would have a lot of goodwill from the other parties which may allow him to actually achieve something..
I see that Reform.are now apparently actively diverting away activists from Manchester to Clacton. They must be genuinely worried.
But, I'm not sure that works in Clacton either.
You can easily imagine it sung by Meatloaf. The two very much a shared the same operatic vampire rock style.
The idea of Farage ruining his own career is just too delicious not to get excited about. Everybody who hates Farage would love a day out leafletting for Binface.
That's quite a large potentially new self-selecting audience.
I think I'd be inclined to vote for Farage as it is possibly the worst outcome for Reform.
We currently pay £1.5 billion a year to switch wind farms off when it's too windy.
Rachel Fletcher from Octopus Energy has just told Parliament that could soar to £10 BILLION by 2030.
Ed Miliband is writing cheques for wind farm developers before the grid can move their energy to where it’s needed.
This is a political choice and it is making electricity expensive.
Government needs to wake up to what their plans are doing to our energy prices and make electricity cheap.
https://x.com/ClaireCoutinho/status/2075111661493498266
The message might have been more effective without Coutinho's spin but...
Channel Tunnel operator orders trains that can withstand Saharan temperatures after blistering heatwaves
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/07/09/eurostar-prepares-for-55c-summers/
The main parties are not doing nothing, I just think they sit on the wrong side of the incremental change Vs radical break with current orthodoxy.
This is for good reason - any radical change is high risk, whether it is closing our borders to cheap labour and different cultures, or 'refusing to be in hock to the bond markets'.
Those with a lot invested in the current system (which includes all of us) are understandably cautious about messing with it. But that goes down like a cup of cold sick for those who perceive (rightly or wrongly) that the current system works against them.
Keep things simple, if you vote Binface you have an independent MP for 3 years who may well actually try and do some good for the town rather than using it as a pedestal to earn money for himself.
The odds tell their own story- it is not expected that Farage loses, but it is certainly well within the bounds of possibility, and a more appropriately ignominious end to his political career could hardly be thought of.
Farage has fucked this up and deserves to lose.
Don't think I can persuade Scottish wife to move there...
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/154003892#/?channel=RES_BUY
Jonathan David Harvey — who earns his living making comedy shows for the BBC — is an Oxbridge liberal elitist who has screeds of anti-Brexit, anti-Trump, and anti-British rants on his Twitter going back over a decade.
Oh, and so does his “Talent Manager” Hollie Ebdon, who once wrote of Farage, “Oh f*ck off you horrible c*nt.”
Don’t get me wrong, I think Binface is a hilarious character, and Harvey is clearly a talented satirist.
But pretending he’s just some random bloke in a suit having a laugh is nonsense.
He’s an establishment luvvie sent to try to undermine the aspirations of people who vote for right wing candidates or parties.
Reminds me of when Al Murray ran against Farage in 2015 and got 300-odd votes. Mocking people to their faces is only funny for so long.
The smear campaign against Binface has begun in earnest on social media.
And given some of the plans I've seen the issue is going to be just putting the storage in the appropriate places, financing it doesn't seem to be the problem.