UK Politics

2983 readers

159 users here now

General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both [email protected] and [email protected] .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

[email protected] appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Shipley Conservative Sir Philip Davies 'bet £8,000 he would lose his seat' (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Right, but they weren't doing that. There's no evidence they were and no motive for them to do so. The comparison with athletes is not apt. A pro footballer who bets on himself and manipulates the outcome is still a pro-footballer afterwards. A politician who bets on themselves and deliberately loses is not a politician afterwards. It does not make sense to do it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

no motive for them to do so

I can think of 8000 motives

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That's about one tenth of the annual MP's salary. So, he has a far greater financial motive to remain an MP than he does to lose and collect the bet.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Well except for the fact that the salary option is:

granted gradually over a year period
requires you to do a full-time job

If they would be able to get even a slightly worse salaried job instead of being an MP, then the financial motive is - in contrast to your claim - actually in favour of him losing

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

yes because "remaining an elected mp for the tories" and "not doing that" represent equal propositions in terms of effort, time and resources

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The motive is money, especially if you're pretty sure you're going to lose.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"In the 2005 election, I busted a gut to win. I expected to lose. I had a bet on myself to lose in the 2005 election, and my bet went down the pan."

He didn't throw the '05 election, even when he bet against himself.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

so to check, you're fine with a football player betting against themselves, so long as they then happen to win?