The Election Blog, Results Night

It's make up your mind time on the Rock Sound Election Blog!

Posted Thursday, 6 May 2010 by eaststrikewest in

Blog

Well today is the big day, and team eaststrikewest are up bright and early (well some of us) ready to cross the right box and take the future into our own hands. Exciting stuff. Weeks and weeks of campaigning, gaffes, and opinion polls have come down to this. One man, one pen, one polling booth, one ballot paper!

Now if you have been watching the news or reading any papers, there is a lot of talk of hung parliaments. It’s bandied about so readily, yet it’s an often unheard term in politics. The last time the UK had a hung parliament was in 1974. What it means in simple terms is that no-one won the vote by a big enough majority to say they’re the king of the castle. So instead of each of the big three winning Gold/Silver/Bronze, they’ve all kind of won the gold medal, but the rub is they have to share it. Which isn’t as easy as it sounds.

On paper it sounds great, the top people from all three parties in Parliament, working for you! But first they have to agree. This is a coalition government. Basically Gordon Brown can decide to either resign in the event of a hung parliament, or stay on and try to negotiate a deal between the other two main parties to form a unified government. But first they all have to agree, which’ll be tricky, as so far none of the party leaders have even agreed to the fact the sky is blue!

“Nick we’ll let you bin the British nuclear deterrent, as long as you let David have his way on immigration” sighed an exhausted Gordon. “Only if you change your mind on hereditary peerages though Gordon” smirked Nick. “I’m not sure I want to play with either of you, I’m going home” huffed David, slamming the door to 10 Downing Street on the way out.

Sounds a bit silly really doesn’t it, but it may come to that – there are other things that can happen if there is a hung parliament, which we'll cover off as and when it happens in the coming days.

If you are planning on watching the results live there is a veritable banquet of coverage to choose from – Channel 4 is hosting an ‘Alternative’ election night show with the tedious Jimmy Carr, the belligerent Charlie Brooker and the vivacious Lauren Laverne (who has come a long way from her indie rock days in Kenickie).

Sky News and ITV also have overnight offerings running up until the wee small hours, and the BBC will also cover the results as they happen overnight. Traditionally there are a few constituencies who race to get their results in first; they pride themselves on their efficiency and counting skills. It’s not even some backwater town either whose electoral roll consists of five people and a cat.

Now normally, the first results will be in around midnight, and if you do decide to watch it overnight, you’ll see key trends forming in voting behaviour, with areas historically associated with one political party changing, and commentators reminding you this is a pivotal moment in the polls...Until the next one.

How will we be consuming the results? Firstly we’ll give the Channel 4 show a go, it goes off air at 1.00am, before things get serious. Then we’ll probably mosey on over to the BBC for the remainder of the night. Just have a flick around the results shows and see which presenter doesn’t grate on you too much, get a big mug of coffee and get stuck in!