Today sees the launch of the world’s biggest swing-o-meter, three 25ft inflatable heads of David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg, which are being flown at different heights to represent who is ahead in the political betting stakes.
According to Betfair, the balloons could be inflated with the hot air spoken by the three main candidates in the televised leader debates alone. Collectively Cameron, Brown and Clegg exhaled over 2,290 litres of hot air enough to fill 763 party balloons.
Cameron spoke the most hot air exhaling 780 litres with Brown closely behind with 770 litres. Clegg, perhaps more conscious of his environmental impact, was in third place with 740 litres.
The giant bet-o-meter is being flown at Westminster and other London locations to show how the nation is betting in the run up to polling day. The Betfair exchange (person vs person betting) is proven to be the most accurate reflection of political outcomes as people put their money on what they think will happen, irrespective of who they will vote for.
A hung parliament is narrow favourite with Betfair punters, currently 10-11 (a 52 per change chance). The chances of David Cameron being next Prime Minister rallied after the final TV debate last week, with the Tory leader now 11-10 (a 47 per cent chance) to win a majority. Neither Labour (64-1) nor the Lib Dems (159-1) have any chance of gaining a majority, according to the betting.
Mike Robb of Betfair said: “There’s been a lot of hot air spoken in the run up to the election, with many unexpected twists and turns, but the political dust is beginning to settle and the betting shows that while David Cameron is ahead of both Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg, a hung parliament is currently floating above the crowd as the most likely outcome of Thursday’s election.”
