Can you picture young Bob Ainsworth in a kaftan with flowers in his shoulder-length hair?

Number 466 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No was asked by a new arrival on Twitter, my good colleague Andy McSmith.

This was a follow-up to number 465, of Ainsworth’s unexpected declaration that drugs should be legalised:

Bob Ainsworth [right] was 16 in the Summer of Love. Is this relevant?

Before that, Marbury asked number 464:

Did Obama just win re-election?

(Thanks to Jack.)

And since then Mike Smithson at Political Betting asked numbers 467 and 468, of the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election:

Is David Cameron betting on a Lib Dem victory?

If so – should you be doing the same?

I do not doubt that Cameron is deliberately sabotaging the Conservative campaign and trying to build up the Liberal Democrat one, for two reasons. One, to be nice to Nick “Human Shield” Clegg; and, two, because if the Labour campaign self-destructs the Lib Dems have a better chance of winning.

But I doubt that he expects the Lib Dems to win. Labour having chosen an apparently credible candidate, the arithmetic is emphatic. Labour is up seven points in the national opinion-poll average since the general election; the Lib Dems are down 14 points. Phil Woolas won by 103 votes over the Lib Dem in May. The Tories, five points adrift in third place in the constituency, are up only three points in the opinion polls.

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• Guest

  Is David Cameron betting on a Lib Dem victory? Not unless savvy Dave has taken leave of his senses. It is obvious that Labour will walk the by-election. The smart bet will be to place the first three. My gold, silver and bronze medallists: Labour, by a distance; the Tories a poor second; the BNP a good third. However, knowing something of the simmering tensions in Oldham over a number of years, it would not be a huge surprise if frustrated and angry voters use the by-election to send a sensational message to the powers-that-be.

  Both the BNP and UKIP candidates are MEPs, but according to VoteWatch.eu Nick Griffin has a far better attendance record at European Parliament plenary sessions at 79.22pc to Paul Nuttall’s pretty average 60.76pc. I do not see UKIP even matching, much less improving on, that dreadfully disappointing third at Buckingham.

• popskihaynes

  Does it matter ?

• LancashireLad

  Yes it does matter because if Labour get back into power they will kill more scientists.

• popskihaynes

  Or Toadstools ?

• http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/IZR4K55M5PNLQGNMJRNTHVUXUU Mike Cawood

  Bob Ainsworth with his irritating little jobsworth moustache.