UK Politics V

[Datepalm]

Sky news is definitely marred by their lack of Brian Cox. But they're calling Edingburgh South for LibDems according to "their sources which they are certain of".

[Sophelia]

BBC website describes Joan Collins rather differently:

Down on the Thames, a very glamorous Joan Collins tells our own Andrew Neil she's a big fan of Mr Cameron and thinks he's "for the family" which is very important to her.

[MinDonner]

The "walking, talking Stephen Hawking" was pretty good. I don't think I'd seen him before.

Brian Cox is awesome :love:

[Slick Mongoose]

And the Tories are sure of Battersea. Which would not be a surprise.

[Sophelia]

HAHA, Clarke. Nice jab.

For people (like me) who didn;t catch that:

Gordon and Sarah Brown arrive in a flurry of flashbulbs at the count in Kirkcaldy. As the BBC switches to show viewers the moment, a rather dismissive Ken Clarke, being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman at the same time, says grumpily: "Oh you can't miss a picture of Gordon Brown arriving at his count."

[Ser_not_appearing_yet]

Looks like the Greens might just get a seat. Having lived for a year in Brighton, I wouldn't be at all surprised.

[Slick Mongoose]

If you're wondering how people know whether they've taken a seat before the results are announced, they can actually see the ballots stack up and compare the size of the piles.

Apparently Portillo knew he'd lost before it was announced in 1997.

[williamjm]

Ah...remember Florida 2000, its now the UK's turn for butterfly ballots, hanging chads, courts entering the fray and people being turned away because of god-knows-what reason. At least there isnt a winner takes all scenario here so 600 votes wont be amplified to a ridiculous say in who gets to be the next party in power.

Since this is a first-past-the-post system it is very possible that a few hundred voters in some marginal constituency could make a difference between whether a party has an absolute majority or not. I seem to remember that one constituency isn't voting for another few weeks due to a candidate dying during the election campaign, it isn't impossible that we'd need to wait for them to vote before we'd have a definitive election result.

[DJDonegal]

Hundreds of ballots "missing" in York?? What the hell is going on...

[Sophelia]

Now they're reporting 100s of postal votes have gone missing in York.

Bah: DJD pipped me this time. :P

[Deedles]

Eh. York. What on earth?

[Slick Mongoose]

Pod?

Only explanation.

[Daeric]

Its those bloody North Yorkshiremen, corrupt to the bone, can't trust them like us West Yorkshiremen, bloody saints we are :leaving:

[MinDonner]

The Greens in Brighton are in with a chance, it's just a shame that they've been so fucking dishonest about their policies on homeopathy. Over the last few weeks there's been a big coverup, blog posts pulled, denials issued... at least if they'd said "yeah, we looked at the evidence and actually homeopathy is a crock of shit" then it'd be much better than just pretending they never supported it in the first place. Bah.

[VarysTheSpider]

Looks like the Greens might just get a seat. Having lived for a year in Brighton, I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Aye, that was my seat when I was at uni during the last election. Thought they had a good chance then. They probably deserve it, they've worked on Brighton for ages.

So glad I voted before work, they kept my polling station open (yep, doors open) past 10pm but it would have been tight. Fucking outrageous, a total fucking embarrassment.

[Maltaran]

The Greens have apparently won a seat in Brighton.

Also, apparently my polling station had police called to it to disperse angry people who were too late to vote (I voted this morning and only had a ten minute wait).

[IheartTesla]

Since this is a first-past-the-post system it is very possible that a few hundred voters in some marginal constituency could make a difference between whether a party has an absolute majority or not. I seem to remember that one constituency isn't voting for another few weeks due to a candidate dying during the election campaign, it isn't impossible that we'd need to wait for them to vote before we'd have a definitive election result.

Yes, but in Florida 600 votes meant 25 electoral seats though. It might be that the exit polls are off for the Tories by 20 odd seats, and god knows those polls have a lot of problems, but only one seat will be affected out of 650 with these 600 votes (discounting York right now, of course).

[MinDonner]

This late-voting scandal is appalling. Shame on us.

[Daeric]

I wonder how many people where just enjoying queueing up and decided to go for another go around!

[Sophelia]

Don't like Jenny Watson, head of the electroal commission's approach at all.

She says the law is clear and electroral officers should have followed it.

The law seems contradictory to me: she said people had a right to be given a ballot paper if they arrived before 10pm, but that the doors had to be closed at 10pm.

Something wrong there.

She is blaming the electoral officers, says it is all their fault and they will have to be accountable to her.

She also said there are no mechanisms for actually enforcing this (stupid) law anyway, so electoral officers can do what they want with impunity. Except it's illegal.

:rolleyes: