Conspiracy theories

I see another blogger has picked up on my piece of a few weeks back about Press Gallery Freemasonry, adding some new information of his own.

The same blog also has an interesting and rather alarming piece on some of the unanswered questions concerning the death of Robin Cook last August, together with a separate post on some official secrets he was alleged to have revealed before his death.

Spooky.

Jury still out on Ming

Differing opinions on the blogosphere today on whether Ming Campbell's problems have worsened or eased following this afternoon's PMQs.

Iain Dale: Ming Bombs Again at Question Time
Guido: Ming Doesn't Mess Up PMQs
Recess Monkey: Ming the Mindless
Skipper: Reading the Clues at PMQs

Unfortunately I didn't see it, so am unable to add my two penn'orth on this occasion, but I doubt there's much he could do to alter my view that the Lib Dems have made a big mistake.

Ace punter bets against Brown

Hat tip to Guido for drawing this to my attention, but Mike Smithson at the influential Politicalbetting.com site has today called the Labour leadership election against Gordon Brown.

This may of course reflect the fact that Gordon is currently very poor value at around 1-3 on compared with more attractive bets like 13-1 on Alan Johnson and John Reid, but nevertheless given the impact that political punters can have (remember the Chris Huhne betting ramp?) I think this is significant.

Smithson's case is that Brown is not a natural campaigner, and that if the election becomes contested, he will find it hard actually asking for votes he believes should come to him by right. He touts the most likely alternative as Johnson, arguing that he has the killer instinct Brown lacks.

I don't happen to agree with this - in my view Brown has enough of the unions and MPs' votes sewn up to be defeated in the constituency ballot and still win comfortably overall - but the fact that such a possibility is even being canvassed will doutbless add succour to his enemies - of which there are many.