Election Night Special

~ tidalscribe.com

Our polling stations have just closed and a long night lies ahead for some. At my polling station the chap checking our photo ID greeted me theatrically with ‘Welcome to the brightest spot in BCP ( the very unoriginal name of our combined councils ). A dull church hall! Then he said ‘Do you like quizzes.‘ Yes I do. ‘Just one question, what is your name?‘ Luckily I passed.

Out and about all day, passing polling stations that weren’t mine, I did see a steady trickle of people heading to vote. On the news they are not allowed to mention politics so instead they kept showing pictures of dogs tied up outside polling stations. Someone on Facebook complained that dogs were not allowed in. One of my earliest memories is of standing outside a polling station in the dark with a tall policeman, the traditional Bobby with a helmet, while my parents went inside. My daughter took her boys with her to vote at 7am and they were allowed in, though probably not allowed to draw pictures on the ballot paper.

Coverage of the count has started on television, how to fill in the long hours waiting for the first count to come in? Lots of intense discussion about what happened last time and what may or may not happen this time. Excitement builds as we start seeing candidates on the stage setting their faces for the right expression when the numbers of votes are read out… Count Binface, Sensible Party 6023 votes, Janet Gogerty, Tidalscribe party 23 votes…

Will you be staying up to follow the results?

If you don’t live in the United Kingdom are you interested?

26 thoughts on “Election Night Special”

  2. Gogerty is still in the race. Don’t give up hope yet. 🤣 On a more serious note, I hope the election turns out the way you hope it does.

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  4. I didn’t stay up. I never do. It doesn’t change anything and I don’t need to know urgently who my new MP will be ore even my new PM. I am in a new constituency after the boundary changes and no-one felt able to predict who would win. The old one was a dead cert true blue tory. So I did check this morning and Plaid one. The bit of the old constituency which was lopped off had gone Labour! That did surprise me! I suppose that is what a landslide victory means.

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  5. I am listening to the election results in the Somme in France, an area where millions lost their lives in a war which left hundreds of beautifully maintained war cemeteries scattered through their landscape.

    Yet despite this, I find it quite poignant that France, like much of Europe, is heading back to the far right, perhaps forgetting what happened last time far right populism took over in Europe.

    The French vote this weekend.

    I really hope that change will happen in Britain. I don’t love Labour, but I am so glad to see the back of the most fascist, dishonest, and disgraceful government in my living memory.

    I’m sorry to see the back of Tobias Ellwood in Bournemouth – he was a very rare beast – a decent Conservative. Yet the grotesque Christopher Chope, who voted down legislation aimed to prevent female genital mutilation and make up-skirting – taking photos up women’s skirts – a criminal offence, is still there in true blue Christchurch.

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    1. Exactly my thoughts, were you listening in at our coffee morning this morning! My two friends from Christchurch DID Not vote for that awful man and we are all furious, what IS the matter with the people of Christchurch, do they just blindly vote him back in each time? One tiny patch of blue amidst the red. I have never adhered to a particular party and it is unfair Tobias should lose his seat, but Tom Hayes has been round twice and chatted to me and no one else appeared, same age as my daughter and seems a good bloke. As for Europe, what is happening!

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      1. I’m not sure the blue rinses of Christchurch would be so impressed with the vile Mr Chope if they checked his voting record in parliament, but I don’t think they do. I suspect he’s just chosen on the basis of his party, although the way he votes in parliament is truly what represents the people of Christchurch! I suspect they’d be shocked to find out what he stands for.

        I think the rise of populism in Europe is for exactly the same reason as we got Boris Johnson following the financial crisis and a period of austerity. Even Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse is under pressure at the moment and it’s always easy to blame others (immigrants, the EU etc) for our woes. Populists offer simple solutions to complex problems that appeal to the masses. Like ‘Get Brexit Done’ – Brexit still isn’t done and won’t be for decades. Or ‘Stop The Boats’ – which make up a tiny fraction of total immigration, the majority of which is LEGAL immigration, which we can control! But the abhorrent policy of sending vulnerable people, often fleeing conflicts caused by our own foreign policy, to Rwanda is an easy headline grabber that appeals to certain sections of society.

        Populists make promises that sound great, but which they can never keep. Like £350 million per week for the NHS, which was an outright lie. Now, once again, we can watch Nigel Farage chuck in his political grenades then stand back to watch the fallout without taking responsibility. Like he did with Brexit. Apparently, Brexit is not a catastrophe because the concept was flawed from the start. It’s because the Conservatives delivered the wrong kind of Brexit. It’s not Farage’s fault.

        I have struggled to find the positives of Brexit, but one is that it has given Europe a chance to observe the pain Britain inflicted upon itself. Now, even Marine le Pen has stopped campaigning to exit the EU!

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  9. At my local polling station (Beetley Village Hall) I was the only one in there at 1pm. Then someone else walked in, and by chance it happened to be my next door neighbour! Sadly, our two votes didn’t manage to get rid of the smug Tory MP. Though his majority was badly mauled. I chose not to stay up to watch, as the main thing I wanted was for Sunak to lose his seat and I didn’t think that would happen.

    Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. Yes I met our new Labour MP for Bournemouth East twice and I said to him Change is easier to say than do and he agreed it’s not going to be easy. They will have to be seen to be doing as well as possible, we can’t afford the public to get disillusioned and start favouring Nigel Farage and Reform UK party.

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