Election End Looms With No Odds On Outright Win

The bookies would have us believe that we’ll have a hung parliament in the UK next week, but does that reflect a mistrust of politicians to be different from each other?

“It’s like, sometimes,” says the terminally baffled intern Will Humpries (played superbly by Hugh Skinner) in the BBC’s self-mocking series W1A, “you have to believe in yourself because no one else does either.” Thereby, in his muddle headed way yet quite succinctly for that, summing up pretty much the entire strategy of every major party standing in the British general election. With less than a week to go till polling they’re all gambling news coverage of their latest soundbites will win them the day seemingly oblivious to the fact no one trusts them.

Miliband Ahead Of Cameron

• Final week of campaigning
• Close race means coalition
• Compromise beckons for all

When asked in a recent poll 65% of people said they had low levels of trust in politicians, the same level of trust as they had in tabloid newspapers, with only 9% saying they had a high level of trust in their elected representatives. These numbers, somewhat oddly, slightly improve when speaking of those in actual power, but even then, 57% felt they could only muster very low trust in Her Majesty’s government of the day. Which probably explains why there is a definite air of cynicism about the whole thing.

Whilst across the ocean the razzamatazz of US politics deflects from the omissions, the exaggerations, and the outright lies the parties tell to gain support at the ballot box, in the UK the stiff necked air of professionalism that all politicians seem to be required to have by their party bosses does nothing to disguise just how disingenuous they’re being. The half-truths and diversionary tactics all sound hollow, ring untrue, and leave the voters with little clear reason to vote for anyone at all.

Close Campaign Could Cause Chaos Of Compromise

Of course those that like to bet on sports in the UK at sites like Bet365 will have noticed by now that the opposition Labour leader, Ed Miliband, is beginning to just edge ahead of sitting Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, but that’s only in terms of who’ll win No.10, who’ll be PM, but the difference is still marginal at best, and the party vote is so close that whomever gets to form a government will face some uncomfortable compromises to gather a majority.

The latest projections see Labour getting 269 seats, and the Conservatives 273, but whilst this would technically allow David Cameron to continue as PM even if all his ideological allies join him or are welcomed to join him (by no means certain in some cases) he’d still only have 325 votes in the house, precisely one less than he would need. Ed Miliband’s party might not win more seats, but with their natural allies, the SNP & Greens, could reach the magic number of 326, a majority.

Of course at this stage both the large parties are still denying that they’ll even consider entering into an alliance with another party, still trotting out the confident predictions of victory, their prevarication in face of direct questioning sickening to behold. It is pretty much to avoid these questions that in this last week they’ve all started to make an ever louder noise to distract people from their inherent lack of trustworthiness. From grandiose promises to scathing accusations it’s all suddenly got a bit bitchy.

Don’t Bet On Business As Usual

With odds of 1.28 to win the most seats Cameron announced he would introduce a law that would make it illegal to raise income tax, National Insurance and VAT, the three largest taxes in the UK, which sounds great, till you realize it leaves them plenty of room to pillage the welfare state, something their current coalition partners accuse them of. The Liberal Democrat’s Danny Alexander accused the Conservatives of planning to cut 8bn GBP and wanting to keep it quiet till after the election.

The Liberal Democrats are rightfully a tad bitter towards the Conservatives who forced them into some humiliating climb downs during their junior partnership, which why they have less chance of getting the most votes 2001.00 than the Greens 1001.00 or worse still UKIP at 251.00. So Danny Alexander standing up and saying the Conservatives will slash child benefits and child tax credits is probably far more revenge than an attempt to win public support. In the gentile world of British politics this is the vicar farting at a funeral and then visibly following through.

UK gambling laws are some of the most liberal in the world, but with such a plethora of options available to you in the form of different markets on this election, and so many different outcomes possible once the dust settles, there really is something for everyone on Bet365‘s election page. Will Labour u-turn and team up with the SNP, will the Conservatives accept they need UKIP, and will the Green party win enough seats for people to take them seriously? And most importantly of all, will the Liberal Democrats disappear up their own disappointment?