Clegg favourite to win debate

SPORT and GENERAL BETTING: THIS is a tricky one. Sport betting is about prices, value and, most of all, opinions.

But when it comes to politics and the forthcoming General Election in particular, this newspaper remains totally impartial.

You may ask where that leaves someone whose remit it is to recommend a bet but, after much consideration, I have come up with the answer. More shortly.

As I write this column the bookies reckon we are heading for a hung Parliament.

That outcome is a 4-7 shot, with a Conservative majority second favourite at 7-4, Labour 22-1 and the Lib-Dems 33s.

The odds are very different for the party winning most seats, however.

Here the Conservatives are red-hot favourites at 30-100, with Labour 4-1 and the Lib-Dems 16-1.

The price for Nick Clegg’s party is astounding. Until recently, 500-1 would have been nearer the mark and anyone who even suggested that the Lib-Dems might be the biggest party in Westminster would have been told to lie down in a dark room for a few hours.

But such is the growing popularity of the plain-speaking Clegg that the tide is certainly swinging in his party’s direction – or at least the bookies think so.

Clegg was voted the winner of last Thursday’s first TV debate in Manchester and he is odds-on to repeat the trick tomorrow when Sky broadcasts his continuing effort to upstage David Cameron and Gordon Brown.

Clegg is 10-11, with Cameron 11-8 and Prime Minister Brown 9-1.

I will keep to myself the identity of the man I expect to win, but there is one bet I can recommend without fear of reprisal.

The price for one of the three major parties winning the General Election with an overall majority is 6-4, yet you can get 7-4 about that party being the Conservatives, 22-1 Labour and 33-1 the Lib-Dems.

So rather than take the 6-4, just back who you expect to win on May 6. At least you will be getting some value . . . and I won’t be fending off telephone calls from irate politicians!
Catch up the with candidates at www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/elections/

FROM being done and dusted, the race for the Premier League title is alive again.

Paul Scholes’ last-gasp winner for Manchester United against derby rivals City on Saturday gave the Reds hope, but it was Chelsea’s defeat at Spurs a few hours later which really put the cat among the pigeons.

With the two teams entering the finishing straight, Chelsea are holding on to favouritism at 8-13.

But they were 2-13 before Saturday’s games and United, now a best-priced 11-8 to win the title, are hot on their heels again.