ON Thursday the final seven candidates for the European elections were confirmed, with all the nominations in…and already the betting has started with Paddy Power amongst the bookies offering odds on who will top the poll.
In what could be a neck and neck finish, Sinn Fein is the current odds on favourite with odds of four to six offered on Bairbre de Brún. The DUP’s Diane Dodds has drifted from early evens money to 11/10; with the Conservatives and Unionists candidate Jim Nicholson at 10/1 ahead of the Traditional Unionist Voice’s Jim Allister.
Long odds are on offer for the SDLP’s Alban Maginness (25/1) while the outsiders are the Green Party’s Steven Agnew and Ian Parsley of the Alliance Party (80/1).
Of course the intricacies of arguments on the stump, forceful TV interviews and well-placed newspaper supplements (not to mention the weather on polling day) could change the final pecking order, but the reality remains…there are very few poor bookies; they usually get it right, or as damn close as makes no difference.
So, perhaps we can save ourselves the agony of the next four weeks of electioneering and decide that the bookies have it right.
Alternatively, we could collectively pick one of the outsiders, each place a tenner on that outsider, and make sure the entire electorate votes for that outsider. This would place a serious dent in the bookies coffers, have political pundits struggle to explain it all, and give everyone a huge laugh in these gloomy economic times.
That wouldn’t of course be democratic…
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