WHAT''S THE BETTING

So we have now had the so called first debate between the prospective prime ministers in waiting. The BBC have produced these poll results today:

On looking at these results, I can only say I must have been watching a completely different program with an alternate Sunak and Truss. That she came across as better in every single matter raised by whichever pollster asked the questions is astonishing. Although she appears to have been one percentage point behind on the matter of who appeared to be more prime ministerial, the BBC text over the charts states:

“Truss was also seen as being more in touch, likeable, trustworthy, and "prime ministerial" than her rival by those surveyed. The foreign secretary outperformed Sunak on all issues covered in the debate, the poll found, particularly on Ukraine, cost of living and levelling up.”

I did not think that was the case at all, but then I am not a local conservative party member. What I can say is that I am not a bit surprised by the poll. Speaking as a biased London liberal, once the last two candidates were chosen by the conservative members of the house, it was a forgone conclusion that Ms Truss would be chosen by the party faithful. The first reason being she favours Boris Johnson. and the second, because she is from the appropriate ‘European’ background.

She also lies with the same easy nonchalance as Boris. When Chris Mason put a quote to her from Britannia Unchained by joint authors Kwasi Kwarteng, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab, Chris Skidmore and herself, stating:

The British are among the worst idlers in the world. We work among the lowest hours, we retire early and our productivity is poor. Whereas Indian children aspire to be doctors or businessmen, the British are more interested in football and pop music.

She claimed “Those were not my words, I didn’t write that”. Somehow it got lost in the shuffle, and Chris Mason got no follow up question on this point, and she didn’t specifically deny subscribing to the words.

Dominic Raab was later asked about the comment on Newsnight and he too fudged around claiming he did not in fact write those words. Which one of the authors did write those words, and if none of them did, as might now appear to be the case, how did they get there? One can only suspect Priti Patel.

What is boils down to is that Liz Truss has as much respect for the truth and the British public, the ordinary people she is so in touch with, as Boris Johnson. You can lie to them with impunity and they will still support you.  I would venture to suggest that those sentiments are supported to the hilt by the majority of the local Conservative party membership.

But that little hiccup was only a minor matter, brushed over quickly and we moved on. All in all a useless exercise. It was an attempt to make this charade seem more democratic by allowing the general public to participate visually in the game. The general public, the ordinary people, actually have no say in the matter of choosing the prime minister whatsoever. Ms Truss is now of course the odds on favourite at 2/9 at Ladbrokes, the money bets are on what percentage of the membership's vote will she get, starting with 45%-50% at 7/2. As the percentage goes up so do the odds. The smallest odds of 5/2 are the 55%-60% bracket. I would guess 65-70% at 8/1 is a good bet, and 50-55% at 4/1, is not bad.

I have no doubt that the worst idlers in the world will be crowding out the betting shops up until the 5th September, if only to help with their cost of living crisis.