The Trump train hits Pennsylvania: A day in the key US election swing state October 27, 2020 Billy Joel’s 1982 song Allentown tells the tale of disaffected steel industry cities in North East Pennsylvania that were ravaged by deindunstrialisation and globalisation. Joel talks about blue collar workers from places like Allentown and Bethlehem that were left unemployed and pushed to the fringe of American culture in exchange for cheaper labour and products. [...]
US election: Nervous New Yorkers sleepwalking toward polling day October 27, 2020 Taking a bus from New York’s John F Kennedy airport and through Long Island provides an insightful snapshot into some of the realities of 21st century America. In the one hour it took yesterday to drive from one of America’s largest airports to my accommodation in Brooklyn, I saw poverty that was akin to that [...]
Donald Trump and Barack Obama lash out at each other in rival election rallies October 22, 2020 Barack Obama and Donald Trump have mounted vicious attacks on each other last night at opposing rallies as polling day draws closer. Obama, who was speaking at a Joe Biden drive-in rally in Philadelphia, called Trump a “crazy uncle”, a peddler of conspiracy theories and someone who is eroding democracy in the US. The President, [...]
Betfair: Trump’s magnetism creates trading opportunities across the board October 21, 2020 The last frenetic week of election betting could be described as contrarian to conventional wisdom. Previously, with reference to Betfair Exchange’s database from previous elections, I noted how this year’s odds diverge wildly from both current polls and historic betting trends. The mismatch has become more stark than ever. Two weeks out, Biden’s 8/13 odds [...]
Record 30m Americans vote early ahead of US election October 20, 2020 Almost 30m US citizens have already voted ahead of November’s presidential election, more than a fifth of 2016’s total tally of ballots. With early voting today having opened in the swing state of Florida, over 29.6m in person or postal votes have already been counted. In 2016, there were 136.6m votes cast in total, but [...]
Pfizer: no emergency approval for Covid-19 vaccine until after US election October 16, 2020 US-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said today that the earliest it plans to file for authorisation for its Covid-19 vaccine would be the third week of November. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in an open letter that filing depended on when data on the effectiveness of the vaccine would be available. Bourla said this data could [...]
Donald Trump needs to get back to basics on the campaign trail October 15, 2020 Tuesday’s Opinium poll showing Donald Trump trailing Joe Biden by a staggering 17 points will likely be the death knell for the President’s campaign. Even at the nadir of Trump’s 2016 campaign, when a leaked tape showed him bragging about him sexually assaulting women, the President’s poll deficit never dipped below 15 per cent in [...]
US election: Kamala Harris suspends campaign as aide tests positive for Covid October 15, 2020 Joe Biden’s Vice President candidate Kamala Harris has suspended her campaign, after her communications chief today tested positive for Covid. Harris, a Senator from California, has cancelled campaign events until the end of the week as a precaution. The Democrats have been very cautious during the election campaign, deciding against having the traditional large scale [...]
Trump or Biden? Either way, global Britain should prepare to step into the void October 14, 2020 US presidential elections are always closely watched across the pond. This time round, in an exceptional year and following a truly extraordinary administration, the anticipation building in Westminster around next month’s vote has reached a fever pitch. The dramatic twists and turns of American foreign policy over the past four years have heightened anxieties about [...]
Boris Johnson tries to court Biden as Number 10 falls off Trump train October 11, 2020 Boris Johnson is reportedly trying to woo US Presidential candidate Joe Biden with Downing Street increasingly convinced that Donald Trump will not be re-elected. Johnson has been shown private polling that shows Biden is on track for a landslide victory, spurring him to try to build ties with the former Vice President. Trump and Johnson [...]