Pass the crisps: UK Election watch

497 Responses

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  • Craig Ranapia,

    Craig will be gutted #fail

    @Sacha: I'm still dreadfully impressed by the fearless spirit of intellectual inquiry around PAS. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Is it ever -- then again, the picture editor at The Guardian really earned his Christmas bonus picking that eww-some front page picture of Cameron lurking behind a half-open door.

    Oh, quite. Plenty of subtext in that.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    is the door half-open or half-shut?

    Oh, quite. Plenty of subtext in that.

    a lot hinges on this...
    Britain is in a jamb...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Oh, quite. Plenty of subtext in that.

    And to be perfectly fair, it's not as if the more right-leaning papers are shy about going for the Gordon "grumpy mole" Brown shots. Closer to home, I'm sincerely not being bitchy in saying that we don't have terribly photogenic Prime Ministers -- and they're never allowed to forget it for long.

    It is quite an interesting (and disturbing) art how you can take a "straight" news story and put a spin on it with the right photograph.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    @Craig

    I kind of expected a rather more sober discussion of rather interesting and not entirely clear constitutional ground, without the grossly tabloid headline.

    A quick google search for 'election' on The Grauniad website, limited to just their UK news, just in the last month, throws up over 20,000 hits of raw red meat for you to get your teeth into.

    A search for 'constitution' on their main site throws up over 600 hits, including this one as the top entry.

    Fill yer boots....

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    it's not as if the more right-leaning papers are shy about going for the Gordon "grumpy mole" Brown shots

    the guardian is getting on on some of that action, too.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    A quick google search for 'election' on The Grauniad website, limited to just their UK news, just in the last month, throws up over 20,000 hits of raw red meat for you to get your teeth into.

    Well, not really -- I've checking out The Guardian website daily for years, so I'm not exactly insensible to the editorially left-ward lean. Adjust scanners and move on. But when you've got pre-emptive vapouring about the Conservatives "stealing the election" and #torycoup dingbats on Twitter, then I have very bad flashbacks to Brash's equally idiotic vinegar tsunami back in 2005.

    Perhaps I'm an old crank, but "coup" and "stealing an election" is not an allegation I like to see thrown around for rhetorical effect. Your mileage may vary, I guess.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    But when you've got pre-emptive vapouring about the Conservatives "stealing the election" and #torycoup dingbats on Twitter, then I have very bad flashbacks to Brash's equally idiotic vinegar tsunami back in 2005.

    Quite -- I declined to even read the story attached to that headline. Gary Younge's "I hate Tories" column had been sufficiently unedifying for me. It does get very tribal over there.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Oh, quite. Plenty of subtext in that.

    a lot hinges on this...
    Britain is in a jamb...

    But how far will it swing?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    This just in:

    BREAKING NEWS: Exit poll for BBC, Sky and ITV News predicts a hung parliament with the Conservatives the largest party. The poll puts the Conservatives on 307 seats, Labour on 255, the Liberal Democrats on 59 and others on 29.

    The Lib Dems may actually lose MPs despite increasing their share of the vote. That's fucked up, man.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Some guy on the beeb came on to announce and the line-up of guests of the post-election show and said that "maybe, just maybe, there will be some surprises". So maybe there won't be any surprises. Which would be what - surprising?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    The Lib Dems may actually lose MPs despite increasing their share of the vote. That's fucked up, man.

    To be all Pollyanna-ish on behalf of the Kleggs, Pollster.com's Mark Blumenthal makes a sound case why UK exit polls should should be taken with a pound of salt -- they're not actually that reliable, and in '92 the Beeb just got it wrong. (h/t Andrew Sullivan)

    The American ones, on the other hand, require Hunter S. Thompson-like levels of pharmaceutical enhancement to be taken seriously. A nice way to sex up the dull early stages, but I still think they point up that TV is over-fixated on "getting it right now" as opposed to just getting it right.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    I've checking out The Guardian website daily for years, so I'm not exactly insensible to the editorially left-ward lean. Adjust scanners and move on.

    Hmmm, clearly the toryforce is strong with this one. He does not react to the strongest of our probes. Increase the signal strength!

    "stealing the election" and #torycoup

    Well, I've been in Napier for a week, so I've managed to miss most of the dingbattier stuff in the run-up. Apparently they didn't have internet in the 1930's. Who knew?

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Hilary Stace,

    Is this the first election with a postal voting option? Because those people might have voted when the Lib Dems were surging a couple of weeks ago and not reflected in exit polls.

    Are people who vote by postal vote more likely to vote one way or another? Special votes in NZ used to favour National because they tended to be people away on holiday. But after the electoral laws were made more inclusive they became the late enrollers, students, young people etc. Postal votes would favour those whose lives are more geographically secure.

    Wgtn • Since Jun 2008 • 3229 posts Report Reply

  • Mike Graham,

    "maybe, just maybe, there will be some surprises".

    Well I was surprised to see that convicted criminal (and ex-MP) Sir Jeffrey Archer on TV3 News last night. (I think that it was from an overseas broadcaster) I would have hoped that they could find someone with a bit more credibility.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 206 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    More exit poll: 7% swing to Tories in England; 1% swing to *Labour* in Wales and Scotland.

    It could all, of course, be rubbish.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Apparently, Michael Portillo will be ringing into National Radio after ten from a "celebrity party boat on the Thames." Oh, the vicarious glamour! :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • simon g,

    Bloody hell. I tune into the BBC World Service for an update, and guess who's being interviewed, telling the Brits what to do in a hung parliament?

    Winston Peters.

    I only caught the end of it, so I don't know if he told them to go fishing.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1333 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Or the over 100,000 Iraqis and Afghans *they* killed (pro-rata)

    I'm sure there's some things that you can pro-rata out, I doubt killing is. It's probably something serious enough that we should count it out in reality.

    The BNP has been beset by internal conflict in recent months. In April, Mark Collett, the party's publicity director, was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, and its fundraiser, Jim Dowson.

    WTF does a BNP fundraiser do? Stand on street corners and threaten little old ladies if they don't buy his fundraising sweets? Run headbanger karaoke nights with gold coin entry? Curious minds etc...

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    WTF does a BNP fundraiser do? Stand on street corners and threaten little old ladies if they don't buy his fundraising sweets? Run headbanger karaoke nights with gold coin entry? Curious minds etc...

    See, that's funny because it's all too plausible.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Matt Swinson,

    Some slightly curious happenings at my constituency in Hackney South. Was given a pass to vote 30 minutes after the 10pm closing time. Feel a little sheepish given the numbers who appear to have been turned away.

    Oh well.

    If the exit polls are to be believed, it's so very depressing to see the Lib Dems lose relative ground since 2005.

    london • Since Mar 2007 • 17 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    What the hell is the UK independence party? Who do they want to secede from, themselves?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Matt Swinson,

    Europe.

    Tenuous, yes.

    london • Since Mar 2007 • 17 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    What the hell is the UK independence party? Who do they want to secede from, themselves?

    Europe. Modernity. Everything that makes life tolerable, pretty much.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Hosking,

    Bloody hell. I tune into the BBC World Service for an update, and guess who's being interviewed, telling the Brits what to do in a hung parliament?
    Winston Peters.

    OK, that is funny.

    Of course, they had to go a long way, to the other side of the world in fact, to find someone with experience of proportional voting systems and permanently hung Parliament.s

    Its not as they have a whole continent next door with decades of experience or anything </sarcasm>

    South Roseneath • Since Nov 2006 • 830 posts Report Reply

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