Gorton and Denton prediction

February 25, 2026 by Leave a comment

I’d taken a break from thinking too much about politics over the last month or so, mainly because I had been finding developments on both sides of the Atlantic a bit of a downer. The rest seems to have done me some good, and I’m beginning to feel more optimistic again, to the extent that I’m willing to risk forecasting the result of tomorrow’s by-election in the hitherto safe Labour seat on the edge of Manchester.

I think it will be… Green, Labour, Reform.

What that will mean for wider British politics is a much bigger question of course. Will Labour jettison Keir Starmer in the hope of avoiding a complete rout in the regional elections in May? Will the Greens be able to translate a local triumph into national momentum? Will the wheels start to come off for Reform?

My short answers are No, Maybe, Yes, but I guess we should wait to see the actual result before we get too deep into the post-mortem…

Filed under Politics Tagged with

Go Birds (again)

February 9, 2026 by Leave a comment

Seattle’s triumph in Super Bowl LX, along with Philadelphia’s victory in the same competition last year, has made me think that in future I should follow an avian theme when making US sports predictions.

For the NBA Championship we’re looking at the Atlanta Hawks or the New Orleans Pelicans, currently ranked 9th in the East and 14th in the West respectively, so perhaps not.

In the NHL there are the Anaheim Ducks and the Pittsburgh Penguins, both of whom are going pretty well this season, and either might be worth a wager for the Stanley Cup.

Most promising though is the MLB; we have the Baltimore Orioles, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Toronto Blue Jays. The first two were nowhere last year, but of course the Jays came within a couple of outs of winning the World Series, so they must be a pretty good bet for this season too.

Filed under Culture Tagged with ,

Super Bowl LX prediction

February 7, 2026 by Leave a comment

Since neither of the teams I tipped for the final have made it to Santa Clara, I need to come up with a new forecast, so I’m going with Seattle.

The less said about my AFCON prediction the better…

Filed under Culture Tagged with ,