Politics Thread!

[KlaxonCow]

Conspiracy theory:

Knowing that they were doomed to a total election wipe out and had no chance of winning, a group of Tories, close to Rishi, pressurised him to call the election early, in the Summer, simply to win a load of bets on when the election date would be.

Unfortunately for them, a body guard was listening in on the plan and decided they'd also get a piece of this action, but made the bet in their own name, failing to realise that if you're going to pull a massive fraud like this, you're supposed to disguise it by getting family or friends to place the bet for you.

They should investigate all bets placed on the election date - it's an unusual bet, so there can't surely be too many for the police to run through - and trace whether any of these people are friends or family of Tory MPs or No.10 staff.

Enough names have now shown up. Perhaps going beyond an individual or two using their "insider knowledge" to try to grab a windfall, this is actually a concerted conspiracy by a group of Tories, knowing they're soon out of a job, to give themselves a "retirement fund" from one last bit of planned corruption.

I mean, at what point does a bunch of "isolated individuals" all doing the exact same thing, placing bets, cease to be "isolated individuals" and becomes an actual group conspiracy that they all planned between them?

And, if so, then the police really need to dig down on Rishi in particular - has he arranged for someone else to make his bet for him, as he obviously can't make such a bet himself as the Prime Minister who actually calls the date? Or, indeed, was the plan that, once the dust settled, he'd take his "cut" from their winnings?

And the body guard who placed a bet was not part of this group - he just overheard the plan and fancied getting a piece of the action - but didn't realise how important it is to disguise who's making the bet, to avoid getting caught, and accidentally blew the lid (became an unintentional whistle-blower) on the big conspiracy?

That the early call for the election is unlikely and doesn't seem to have a good reason to go now quite deliberately, as they wanted to get the best odds.

In fact, dig deeper. Without giving up your sources in any way, of course, can all the journalists just confirm that their "inside sources" didn't at any point tell them it was going to be an autumn election? Like, was this even more cynical - did they actively try to mislead the nation of when the election date would be, in order to secure the highest odds for making that bet?

That's not just "insider trading" at that point, it would actually constitute fraud, if these Tories didn't just place bets on the date but actually tried to actively mislead the entire nation (and, thus, implicitly also all the bookies of the nation) to secure the best odds for their bets.

Like, one or two and it's just "isolated individuals" trying their luck. But as the numbers rise, we need to consider that the odds that they were all working individually - to pull off the same scam - drops, and that the odds of it being an actual concerted conspiracy rises. And if that's the case, then dig deeper - is this not merely "insider trading", but was the date actually picked simply to win these bets, and did they also conspire to mislead the nation (via being "inside sources" to journalists, knowing that their names would be protected) into securing the highest odds for the biggest pay out? Because that adds the extra dimension of it actually being conspiracy to defraud, not simply "insider trading" only.


Edit: ah, I'm reading an article from the Independent now, that the investigators are expanding their search to include ALL bets over £20 made on the election date. They've also started to think the same way as me - could this actually be a conspiracy to commit fraud, now that we've discovered a fourth name? Like, if they dig down and find connections to, ooh, eight, nine, ten or more Tories or No.10 staff... it really then has to be investigated that none of these people tried to actively mislead journalists and others as to the election date. Hmm, because journalists will protect their sources, this might be hard to prove it was actually active fraud, not just insider trading, but the journalists themselves will know if this is the case.

[Harlequin]

The really big conspiracy could be bets placed by Conservative Party members and/or their friends and families on Labour winning next week's election. Everyone close to Richi having had such a punt might possibly provide some explanation for the omnishambles of the past month.

[Kelloggs]

Never attribute to gambling that which can be explained by imcompetence.

[Orava]

Betting winnings even a few thousand pounds are pretty insignificant compared to mps salary. But it is the principle I suppose.

[PFVA]

Betting is a big business and 60% of the on line betting and casino games are in Gibraltar, coincidently still business.

The British aren't the only ones. Betano, very known here, is based in Greece.

It seems that Southern Europe in general is specialising in gambling.

[Whiteball]

Betting is a big business and 60% of the on line betting and casino games are in Gibraltar, coincidently still business.

The British aren't the only ones. Betano, very known here, is based in Greece.

It seems that Southern Europe in general is specialising in gambling.

Gibraltar for tax reasons I believe

[Orava]

One of my career disappointments was working for a betting company, making pretty websites to lure in the punters. Not proud of that. Although the betting algorhythms were quite interesting.

[PFVA]

Looking at the election in France and thinking about the future
Either:
1. Sooner or later the extreme right will get majorities all over Europe. After a few years it will happen as it did with socialism and social democracy in the 70s and early 80s, people will get disappointed and they will get voted out.
2. They'll try to establish dictatorships like in the times of fascism and nazism. It will never work. I mean they maybe able to do it for a few years but then it will crash. It's impossible to keep a dictatorship for a long time in a place as different as Europe..
3. We will end up with civil wars all over between left and right. I don't like that.

Either way immigrants will suffer the most specially those who are from a different race and or religion.

Note: And now we have something called 'Patriots for Europe' And our 'noisy right', friends specially with Spanish Vox, a whatever it's called Salvino's (Italian) party is all happy it was invited.

Ow, I forgot to add to the options above, in the middle of all this mess we keep heading to climatic disaster.

[Orava]

IT is feking hot already, having to go out and get a drink. This is not normal.

[tufty]

[Orava]

Ha-ha a very good take on tory adverts. Also the most cringeworthy ever.

[zip accident]

May we have a new poll please?

[Mat]

I was going to say the same. I've already posted my vote, and it's different to last time.

[PFVA]

Courtesy of my national TV news this morning I'm seeing Boris Johnson appearance in support of the conservatives.

[Orava]

I had to turn off the TV so much hate speech.