Jon Bright (London, OK): If you're watching the news as obsessively as I am today, you might have noticed two interesting media subplots developing, as we wait for the mayoral race to declare a winner. The first is bookmaker Paddy Power's decision to pay out on a Boris win, to the tune of roughly £100,000. They have clearly gambled that the payoff in terms of positive publicity is more than the risk of that money being lost by a surprise Ken resurgence. I first noticed them in Political Betting, and have since watched their name trickle into the Evening Standard and the Telegraph. I'm sure it will percolate through elsewhere soon.
The second is Labour's decision to release the news that David Pitt-Watson will not be taking over as general secretary. As Michael White pointed out on Wednesday, the media have completely lost interest in the dodgy donations row which it was once so fond of, to the extent that no-one (myself included) noticed Monday's news that David Abrahams, the donor at the heart of the scandal, had been told by the police that he would not face charges. Nevertheless, Labour's media machine clearly calculated that the announcement still had the potential to generate a bad news cycle, to the extent that they waited until today to bury it. As the media storms on in its frenzy of live blogs, leaks, and instant analysis, will there be any more crafty attempts to play it before the end of the day?
