*Bookies refuse to qoute odds on 3,4 or 5 Green wins.

I received the following message, today, from a friend:

"Greenies might be interested in the odds that the bookmaker William Hill is offering on the forthcoming European elections -

Greens to win 10 or more seats - 6/1.

They are not offering odds on us to win, for example, 3, 4, or 5 seats. (I phoned to check). I find this a very optimistic indicator, because it tells us that the bookies think that this sort of result is very much on the cards, and so they prefer to not offer odds on it. (The trick of being a profitable bookmaker is that when something is likely to happen, don't offer odds on it at all, or if you do, offer such miserly odds that no-one will bet on it much).

What it boils down to is that the bookies clearly think that we may get for example, 4 or 5 seats - which is a good sign for us.

The point is that the bookies are generally very accurate when it comes to Parliamentary elections, so they are likely to have this one more or less right too."