Election Betting (UK)

LOL. OK. Not THAT election. the UK General Election scheduled for 4 July. Our process is simpler and far faster than in the US. The Prime minister calls an election at a time of his choosing, and the leader of the winning party becomes the Prime Minister. It was announced with 6 weeks notice and that's all the time available for campaigning.

Anyhow, PM Sunak must want to take a break. He called the election with no chance of winning. His party will be hard pressed to come second to a brand new, right wing party, called 'Reform'.

Here's an amusing tale making the news.
https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-elections-betting-scandal-pm-rishi-sunak-tories/

The current prime Minister's Chief advisor placed a £100 bet on what day the election would be called for. One of his Special Protection Force police officers also placed a bet on when the election would happen. and last but not least, his Campaign director and his wife also placed bets.

What a bunch of mucking forons. :)
So far, the Police Officer is the only one arrested for "Misconduct in public office"

They all, obviously had inside info and got greedy. But £100 !!!!! Is a career worth that?

Anyhow for anyone that cares..... ( I know. I know) Our incumbent administration (Centre- Right Conservative party) led by Rishi Sunak, is about to suffer one of the most devastating election humiliations in our history to our Labour Party (Centre-Left). If you want a sure thing, bet on our Labour Party forming our next government. in English format you'll get odds of 1/50 !!!! US format -5000 ?

I'm jealous of your country that what passes for a huge political scandal is just a few people making £100 bets.

Quote: OnceDear

mucking forons

(Largely snipped quote above.)

Thanks for the entire post, as I learned something new. Now I know a little bit about your election process! It’s seems to give a bit of an advantage to the incumbent…

As for the quote above, it reminds me of something my grandfather (from Pontypool) used to do. He liked to switch the first letters of two words (usually an adjective and a noun), as you did above. He would do it all the time, not just to obscure certain phrases, as you did. When my father and uncle were young, he did it so much that my grandmother (from Edinburgh) would admonish him. She would warn that he was going to get himself in trouble one day, and sure enough… They were driving by a lake, and he pointed out a “funny duck”. Oops! (Just switch the “d” and the “f” to see what he actually said.)

Quote: OnceDear

LOL. OK. Not THAT election. the UK General Election scheduled for 4 July. Our process is simpler and far faster than in the US. The Prime minister calls an election at a time of his choosing, and the leader of the winning party becomes the Prime Minister. It was announced with 6 weeks notice and that's all the time available for campaigning.

The "calling for elections" thing always amazed me. You are doing good you can lock yourself in. Doing bad just do not have elections. I do like the short period, though.

Now if you would just get off the metric system.........

Quote: AZDuffman

The "calling for elections" thing always amazed me. You are doing good you can lock yourself in. Doing bad just do not have elections. I do like the short period, though.

"elections are required by law to be held at least once every five years, but can be called earlier if the prime minister advises the monarch to exercise the royal prerogative to do so. Prime ministers have often employed this mechanism to call an election before the end of their five-year term, sometimes fairly early in it. Critics have said this gives an unfair advantage to the incumbent prime minister, allowing them to call a general election at a time that suits them"

Remarkably, when the election was called, the whole of our lower house get dismissed and Parliament is dissolved. No more legislative actions are possible until the completion of the election. All power nominally reverts to our king. IMMEDIATELY after the election, the new party and Prime Minister take power. No two month wait for a handover and inauguration. Meanwhile, over in France, President Macron has disolved their parliament by calling a snap election. It could backfire for him as the dominant opposition are pretty extreme far right, and are in a strong position.

Quote:

Now if you would just get off the metric system.........
link to original post

If you get it, you love it. You just don't get it. :) Metric is a system. Imperial measures are a throwback to the Roman Empire. Much inferior to any system. Think of it more as a Method :)

Quote: OnceDear

Quote: AZDuffman

The "calling for elections" thing always amazed me. You are doing good you can lock yourself in. Doing bad just do not have elections. I do like the short period, though.

"elections are required by law to be held at least once every five years, but can be called earlier if the prime minister advises the monarch to exercise the royal prerogative to do so. Prime ministers have often employed this mechanism to call an election before the end of their five-year term, sometimes fairly early in it. Critics have said this gives an unfair advantage to the incumbent prime minister, allowing them to call a general election at a time that suits them"

Remarkably, when the election was called, the whole of our lower house get dismissed and Parliament is dissolved. No more legislative actions are possible until the completion of the election. All power nominally reverts to our king. IMMEDIATELY after the election, the new party and Prime Minister take power. No two month wait for a handover and inauguration. Meanwhile, over in France, President Macron has disolved their parliament by calling a snap election. It could backfire for him as the dominant opposition are pretty extreme far right, and are in a strong position.

Quote:

Now if you would just get off the metric system.........
link to original post

If you get it, you love it. You just don't get it. :) Metric is a system. Imperial measures are a throwback to the Roman Empire. Much inferior to any system. Think of it more as a Method :)
link to original post

So the song would be better as I can see for kilometers and kilometers and kilometers??

Quote: OnceDear

LOL. OK. Not THAT election. the UK General Election scheduled for 4 July. Our process is simpler and far faster than in the US. The Prime minister calls an election at a time of his choosing, and the leader of the winning party becomes the Prime Minister. It was announced with 6 weeks notice and that's all the time available for campaigning.

Anyhow, PM Sunak must want to take a break. He called the election with no chance of winning. His party will be hard pressed to come second to a brand new, right wing party, called 'Reform'.
link to original post

Probably remembers what happened when Major waited until pretty much the last second to call an election in 1997. The longer the wait, the larger the Labour majority.

I was in London for the 1987 general election, but I don't remember any books offering straight-up odds on which party would form the government - just ranges of the size of the majority.

Quote: OnceDear

LOL. OK. Not THAT election. the UK General Election scheduled for 4 July.
link to original post

So noted in the updated title.
Hip-hip hooray for disambiguation.

Quote: camapl

Quote: OnceDear

mucking forons

(Largely snipped quote above.)

Thanks for the entire post, as I learned something new. Now I know a little bit about your election process! It’s seems to give a bit of an advantage to the incumbent…

As for the quote above, it reminds me of something my grandfather (from Pontypool) used to do. He liked to switch the first letters of two words (usually an adjective and a noun), as you did above. He would do it all the time, not just to obscure certain phrases, as you did. When my father and uncle were young, he did it so much that my grandmother (from Edinburgh) would admonish him. She would warn that he was going to get himself in trouble one day, and sure enough… They were driving by a lake, and he pointed out a “funny duck”. Oops! (Just switch the “d” and the “f” to see what he actually said.)
link to original post

Spoonerisms are a delight. I think "funny duck" (ahem) takes a different meaning in Australia.