msc

Rebecca Wrong-Dailey - Manchester Met Sir Keir - St Edmunds, OXFORD. Settles it. Hah.

On the bright side, you wont know whodunnit even if you've read the book a dozen times!

Bit early for the 2021 shortlist to start dying, even by DDP standards.

Good Doddie Weir documentary on the BBC other day after his SPOTY appearance. Still walking and talking (just about) but falling over a lot and says with "his type" of MND, his biggest goal now is to reach 50 (on July 4th 2020).

OoO *is* the reference. Some of us work out our deadpool picks by form watching them off TV, Odstock works them out by having face to face chats...

Actor Nicky Henson has lost his near 2 decade battle with cancer, aged 74. Mirror obit

If thats the options available, it's got to be Sir Keir.

Good stuff, DI, though I'm convinced the Americans made up some of these names to take the piss out of the Brits. "Uh yeah, sure, Yale Lary was a legend here, give him an obit..." "Did they fall for it?"

According to last weeks Sunday Times, Nicholas Parsons has missed a regular public Christmas appearance for the first time ever at Chelsea Old Church. "Wasn't feeling well enough to attend" - Mail also chuck in a reference to being gravely ill because they like to scare folk. Well, I hope they do...

I don't follow boxing either, but the man beat Ali. So I'd assume so.

Ahem. As I look at a long list of boring, young and healthy Special Advisors, I have but one thing to say: Bugger Bolsover.

Well, its on open offer! Well, maybe not for you, Grim, you might need to hibernate after January...

No, Stroud has more: David Drew and Neil Carmichael took on each other at 5 elections straight, 2001 to 2017. Drew won 3-2.

Will put in a team just as soon as I can be sure the good voters of Bolsover don't bugger up the one gimme pick!

He (Simon Garfield) wrote The Wrestling, a pretty good book about the history of Mick McManus and Big Daddy and all that jazz. Although given how that ones goes, and his other books include the history of AIDS, I expect his Fonts book to go: "They created a new text font. Sadly, his wife then got incurable motor neurone cancer..."

Scruton early 2019 Scruton in wheelchair, December 2019. Bloody hell.

A DDP miss for me, he was on my "bung 'em on" team last year but not this! And you forgot his finest hour - Actor Mel in the Frasier episode Ham Radio, one of the finest 20 minute pieces of US TV ever made:

First rule of jesting - always pick someone who will take it well. Also at that point you were the only one actually in the game, so the joke's sphere was... limited.

Although since Deathray has brought out the psephology geekdom, I'd just like to add that I think the Lib Dem vote share is becoming heavily regionalised ie that they'll hold up far better in target seats than in no hope seats. They've gone down 4-5 points this month in London, but they are still polling well above 2017 levels so if thats fixed on their targets they could gain Zac Goldsmith's Richmond Park or nearby Wimbledon, but lose their deposit in somewhere like Chingford or Walthamstow. Universal Swing is increasingly becoming less of a thing as tactical voting and local issues become as vital.

IDS, hopefully. (If you still mean "biggest defeat for an MP, it'll be Chris Williamson.)

They made a big to do about it, but the results was the Greens and Plaid standing down in some good targets for the Lib Dems, and the Lib Dems standing down in some places like Isle of Wight that nobody bar the Tories stand a chance in. It was pretty much a smokescreen to boost Lib Dem MP numbers that the Greens and Plaid completely fell for. Plaid could easily lose half their MPs (Ceredigion is marginal Plaid/Lib Dem, Arfon is super-marginal Plaid/Labour with no Greens or Lib Dems standing now) as a result! Meanwhile some really obvious "do a deal" seats haven't got one and are likely to produce Tory MPs based on split opposition. To pick three other than the aforementioned Devon East: St Ives (Lib Dem target, 300 votes in it, popular ex-Lib Dem MP running, Greens standing), Stroud (Remainer Labour MP, opposed by Greens Molly Scott-Cato) and Canterbury.

Certainly some of the Labour "old" seats will go - a Workington or Stoke. But there maybe a Canterbury type result too, where the combination of younger demographics, and a huge Remain vote in 2016 bring a completely unexpected gain for Labour. Somewhere like Altrincham (held by Tories since 1922), or Chelsea (since 1910)...

What hurts Claire Wright as *only Tory threat in her seat* is, as a Peoples Voter, she has the Lib Dems AND The Greens standing against her. This happens in a lot of seats. Zadrozny is a Brexiteer so might take votes off the Tories in Ashfield. I think that seat is the Tories to lose tbh even if Labour shore up their defence. North East Hampshire is surely ripe for the overdue election of Howling Lord Hope, leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party...

Independents? Claire Wright in Devon has the best chance, Jason Zadrozny in Ashfield is a maybe, Dominic Grieve if things really go his way on the day, and... did you hear about the SNP chap in Kirkcaldy suspended from the party for antisemitism? It was too late to remove SNP from his name on the ballot paper, so I think he'll be elected as an independent Nat.

Take care @Dr_T. Sorry to hear of your losses. Worry not about the DDP, it'll be here as and if you ever feel the wish to return. Focus on whats important in life.