The last few days have been a busy time for this column with no fewer than seven combined bets coming due (eight if you had bet singly). Regarding last Thursday's local elections, I correctly predicted Labour victories in Greater Manchester and West Merseyside, while the Conservative candidates triumphed in Cambridge & Petersborough and the West Midlands. However, the Liberal Democrats put in a surprisingly poor showing in the West of England, coming in third place with only 20.2% of the vote.
Macron's landslide victory on Sunday means that both my tips that you should bet against Le Pen which I recommended in November and my more recent suggestion that you should back Macron at evens paid off. Overall, this series of bets would have made an average profit of just over 20% (though you would have only got 7% if you had treated the Greater Manchester bet as two separate bets).
I'm now advocating two Scottish bets. The local election results, as well as the latest polls, suggest that the SNP have fallen back quite a bit from their 2015 high-water mark, perhaps because the Scots don't want another independence referendum. By contrast, the Conservatives have surged, becoming the second-largest party. So you should take William Hill's offer of 1/4 (80%) on the Tories to hold Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale.
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Edinburgh South, Labour's sole remaining seat, is slightly more complicated because Labour's collapse means it has now become a three-way marginal. While I think pro-union tactical voting will see them through, I'd make a combined bet on both Labour at 11/8 (42%) with Sykbet and the Conservatives with Coral at 3/1 (25%). This works out to combined odds of 67%. In this case you should put £6.27 of a hypothetical £10 betting unit on Labour and £3.73 on the Conservatives.
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Steve Webb: The triple lock is there to do a job. I’m not embarrassed or ashamed of itThe triple lock means 13 million pensioners will now get an above-inflation state pension boost in April. While the rising cost of the policy has stirred controversy, Steve Webb, who served as pensions minister when it was introduced, argues the triple lock is vital and should stay. Webb speaks to Kalpana Fitzpatrick on the new episode of MoneyWeek Talks – out now.
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How retirement pots risk running out 11 years early if inflation remains highPension savers could find their retirement income may not last as long as they anticipated over fears that inflation may not slow down
