Bookies in Britain expect Cameron to be out by weekend

[malaise]

I did say last week that Cameron was (in cricketing terms) on the backfoot so I do love the last sentence here
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14201857
<snip>

When the Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks go before the culture, media and sport committee, some members will be intent on asking questions about Andy Coulson, David Cameron's former communications director, in an attempt to bring the crisis closer to the door of number 10.


But as David Cameron touches down on Tuesday evening, he will find that the bookies are taking bets that he will be gone -permanently - by the weekend.

Far fetched nonsense of course - but a few weeks ago the loss of the country's senior police officer, the resignation of the chief executive of a major newspaper group, the closure of the bestselling Sunday tabloid, and the death of a whistleblower in the hacking scandal would have seemed unthinkable.

So those disgruntled Tory backbenchers will be hoping the prime minister can swiftly get off the back foot.

[HipChick]

1. "Dodgy Dave" as he is known - needs to resign..

Left Labour MP Dennis Skinner branded Prime Minister Cameron "dodgy Dave" today as the escalating Establishment scandal cast a huge cloud over 10 Downing Street.

Mr Skinner declared: "It is getting closer and closer to the Prime Minister and the centre of government.

"We have Rupert Murdoch's key lieutenants resigning with Rebekah Brooks arrested and Coulson arrested.

"There's only dodgy Dave still at large."

Mr Skinner praised today's warning by Labour leader Ed Miliband that the Prime Minister has "a whole series of questions to answer."

As Parliament was recalled for a special crisis session on Wednesday, Mr Miliband demanded that Mr Cameron must come clean on questions such as his relationship with Ms Brooks and James Murdoch - including a cosy Christmas dinner.

He said Mr Cameron must also tell MPs about warnings he received from Lib Dems Nick Clegg and Lord Ashdown regarding employment of Andy Coulson as his director of communications.

Mr Miliband accused Cameron of being "hamstrung" by his "terrible error of judgement."

The Labour leader seized on the complaint by resigning Met Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson that he could not discuss vital issues with the PM because he felt that David Cameron was himself compromised via Mr Coulson.

Mr Miliband urged new laws to restrict media ownership, and called for fundamental changes following the "three great crises" of recent years - the banks, MPs' expenses and now the press.

A buzz of complaint swept Westminster today as Mr Cameron flew out on a visit to Africa despite the enormity of the crisis.

At a press conference in South Africa a shameless Mr Cameron dodged questions about the sharp barb aimed at him by the Met Police commissioner.

[malaise]

2. 'dodgy Dave'

Love it :hi:

[LeftishBrit]

11. Good old Skinner; he's been annoying the Right since he became an MP in 1970

The Tories call him the 'Beast of Bolsover'!

[malaise]

3. Hottest news so far relating to Cameron

John Yates says the PM's head of staff Ed Llewellyn turned down the offer of a briefing on the "scoping" of an investigation following New York Times stories on phone hacking (that appears to be September 2010) - John Yates said he didn't speak to Andy Coulson about this - but did speak to him when he was at No10 on the unrelated topic of police reform.

[tekisui]

4. Love watching the bricks fall.

[flamingdem]

5. bloody 'ell !! Let's hope nt

[Erose999]

6. Pip pip cheerio to that!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpXj4cj5MUw

[Jim Lane]

7. Unfortunately, the linked article doesn't support your headline.

It says only that bookies are taking the bets. That doesn't mean that they expect Cameron to be gone. It means only that they think a significant number of people would want to bet that way.

Anyway, if all that happens is that the Tories replace the tainted Cameron with someone else, then it won't make that much difference. What I'm wondering is whether there's any potential to bring down the coalition.

[yellowcanine]

8. "...any potential to bring down the coalition." Absolutely there is.

Coalition governments are always a bit wobbly and scandals involving the Prime Minister tend to make them more so. Successful no-confidence votes are made of such fodder.

[brooklynite]

9. Misleading Headline...

The bookies DON'T believe Cameron will be out, or they wouldn't be taking bets that he will be.

[LeftishBrit]

10. Not likely, I think

There are two ways that it could happen. One is if he resigns and is replaced by another Tory. The other is if the opposition, aided by rebellious LibDems and possibly some Tories, force a vote of no-confidence and an election.

I don't think either would happen by the weekend. Even if there was a vote of no-confidence, Cameron would remain Prime Minister until the election- and though it's likely that the Tories would lose, it's not guaranteed. Similarly, even if he announced his resignation as party leader, or there was a leadership challenge, he would stay in office until the successor was chosen and this would take more than a few days.

The scandal does increase the chance that the government will last for considerably less than the 5-year-term that it had hoped for (3 years 10 months to go!); but it won't be a matter of days.

[cbdo2007]

12. Where did you learn how to write Headlines?? You're no better than Fox News.

unrec