An extraordinary position to be in.

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carolineagain.jpgDon't believe the politicians when they tell you "only X can win here", with or without dodgy bar charts. Proper polling should be listened to, of course, but the bookies are perhaps the most reliable source of intelligence. 

They put their money where their predictions are, after all, which is one of the reasons Political Betting is such a popular site.

When I joined this movement in 1998 I would have struggled to believe that in little more than ten years our sister party would be odds on to win a Westminster constituency. Yet Ladbrokes offer the following national odds:
Green Party to win a seat - 5/6

Despite the prospects in Norwich South, where Greens have topped local election results each year since 2007, most of this is because the bookies rate Caroline Lucas the favourite for Brighton Pavilion. She's at evens, followed some way behind by the Tories at 7/4, then Labour at 3/1 and the Lib Dems at 66/1. 

The party did an ICM constituency poll at the tail end of last year, which gave this result:

Green: 35% (+13%)
Tory: 27% (+3%)
Labour: 25% (-10%)
Lib Dem: 11% (-6%)
Others: 2%

The main local politics blog credits Greens with the momentum, the Independent have today more or less called it for Caroline, and the paper came canvassing with her at the weekend. Political Betting discussed the poll over the holiday too.

There's no sign of local complacency either - the whole constituency gets a visit every month, and Greens from across the UK are helping out. I'm looking forward to a trip down before the end of March, and I know many others are too. Better to win one seat than to come closer in a few more.

If you're looking for betting value on Greens, though, I'd go for Norwich South at 4/1 or Edinburgh East at a whopping 100/1. Robin's represented the area for a decade, after all, and you only have to walk the streets with him to see how well known he is.

4 Comments

I've seen odds of 8/1 for Norwich South (William Hill) which I just think is insanely good! Unless, I'm the one who's insane and we haven't got a hope in hells chance of winning that seat...?

I got in on Norwich South at odds between 80/1 and 8/1, and would personally do rather well if Adrian won. Aside from being utterly delighted to see someone so great unseat the infuriating Charles "Safety Elephant" Clarke.

at the Safety Elephant link, there's a fine Times quote top right:

"It would be nice to live in a country where we could make buckets."

Caroline looks a tad Blake's 7 threatening in that pic you've put up there

She's making Charlotte Vere dissolve for comparing Greens to the BNP.

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This page was published on January 11, 2010 10:16 AM.

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