Guido has been inundated with gossip and smears about the Bromley by-election. As enjoyable as they all are Guido was not completely convinced of their accuracy. Filtering out the more fanciful stuff here are the more credible claims :

• Bob Neill is a “lapsed freemason”, rather like Clinton “not inhaling” that one. He still does not deny being an opera lover.
• Ben Abbotts claims to have “spent some time working at an orphanage in Madras and my experiences there have really stayed with me. “ An impeccable source tells Guido that this is bollocks and he spent just about long enough to get photographed at the orphanage. Typical spin-merchant stretching of the truth.
• Nobody has bothered to send Guido any smears about the Labour candidate – that means whatshername is either beyond reproach or likely to come a distant third or fourth.
• Betfair have yet to come back to Guido with a ruling as to if they will payout on a Tory win on Thursday night in the light of UKIP’s threat to petition to disqualify Bob-a-Job-or-Two. Judging by how long Guido’s money was tied-up with Betfair after Berlusconi whinged about the Italian result they will probably wait to see who sits in parliament…

UPDATE : Betfair have called to say that they will settle against the declared result on the night. So pile the money on Bob-a-Job.