Runners and Riders

The bookies William Hill are offering odds of 7/2 on Blair backing Brown (but they haven't taken a single bet of £10 or more). They have Peter Hain as 2/1 favourite to be Deputy Leader, with Alan Johnson on 3/1 and Hilary Benn on 4/1. Harriet Harman is 7/1. Brown is favourite to be Leader on 4/11, with Alan Johnson at 3/1. They are offering 12/5 on Blair being out of office before the end of the year. The Tories are 4/7 favourites to win the next election. The odds on a hung parliament are 7/4. The bookies can get it wrong, of course. The Daily (see Links) reports that the odds on Jon Cruddas winning the Deputy Leadership have gone from 100/1 to 8/1 in barely over a week - and William Hill is no longer taking bets. Anyone who backed him at 100/1 has a good outside bet. But Politaholic thinks William Hill has got it broadly right so far as the Leadership/Deputy Leadership is concerned: Brown as Leader, Hain as Deputy Leader.