How to make a fool of yourself as a political journalist
The prediction from the Daily Mirror pundit: Labour was on course to a dismal result ,,, the party's majority ,,, could be cut to less than 1000 in a head-to-head battle with UKIP,
And the result: Labour's candidate Jim McMahon secured a 10,722-vote majority from UKIP's John Bickley, and a 62% vote share that was higher than at the general election.
The Mirror's Dan Bloom was obviously not given the advice I was as a young journalist playing political correspondent in Canberra for the first time.
"The closer it gets to an event, the less definite should become your opinion" was how the then doyen of the Press Gallery Ian Fitchett warned me. People will laugh at you forever when your prediction is hopelessly wrong but hardly notice and never remember when you get it right.
Get ready for the laughter Dan.
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