Editorial: Latest from Rochester

With the Rochester by-election still four days away it’s being reported that bookmakers are already paying out for bets on Mark Reckless, the former  Conservative MP but now UKIP candidate for the constituency. The odds on Reckless are 1/25 so no fortunes will be made. Perhaps of greater interest is  that one bookmaker is shouting 1/20 on Reckless winning for UKIP at the  general election in May. That contradicts one recent poll that predicted a twelve point win for UKIP on Thursday but also discovered that a majority of  Conservatives supporting UKIP say they will return to the Tory fold come next  May. That should give some hope to David Cameron. During a visit to Rochester  last week he was so gloomy about his party’s prospects that he actually made an appeal to supporters of LibDem, Labour, Greens and others -- there are  thirteen candidates altogther including, of course, the Monster Raving Loony  Party -- to vote for the Conservative’s Kelly Tolhurst on this  occasion if  they wanted to avoid confusion and instability.  The only sure thing seems to  be that there will be lot of lost deposits on Thursday night.