Election night

You cannot fail to know that it is the general election here in the UK, where we vote for our members of parliament. I am not going to go into the politics of it, but I’m thinking back over general elections in the past.

When I first went to Manchester a dear friend was very involved in a political party, and he would go out canvassing,and we would be very interested because of course we wanted his candidate to win. Come the actual night when the votes were counted, he would be there at the count supporting his candidate. We would watch the results come in on TV, watching what seem like very primitive visual displays of swings and percentages and possible outcomes… everyone’s favourite has to be the famous swingometer with its giant hand/pointer which would be moved to represent how the votes were coming in for each party and what predictions could be made.

Much later, in the 80’s I remember one election where two friends were staying over with me; one had absolutely no interest in politics and couldn’t understand why we were glued to the TV with excitement. She went to bed and we stayed up virtually all night – goodness knows how I was able to teach the next day!

The last election we actually did go to bed, but we kept the radio on, and I drifted through the night half-asleep and half awake as the results came in and prognostications were made.

It’s at a really early stage now, with only one result in, but it looks like its going to be an exciting night!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1369188.stm