Possibly the finest moment from Yes, Prime Minister:
Any journalist about to write about opinion polls should be forced to sit down and watch this.
Recently in Politics Category
Given the state of the economy, the state of my to-do list and the amount of time available to me right now, I couldn't resist taking the speech George Osborne, our new Chancellor, gave this morning and putting it through Wordle.
Not many clear messages there, other than the fact he likes the word "fiscal"... Is this just a complicated issue, or is Osborne just not very good at making a point?
So, how has the online media done on this election? The BBC has reported unprecedented levels of traffic to its site this morning, but Paul Bradshaw has a good post up, suggesting that there's a degree of homogenisation amongst the online news outlets.
One of Computer Weekly's bloggers is claiming that It Was Twitter Wot Won It, but I'm not sure I agree. Pre-election, I found Twitter too much of an echo chamber, and I've seen both Labour and LibDem supporters acknowledging that overnight. I've actually found it more interesting in the last eight hours or so, for discussion of consequences, rather than as a bellwether for the likely result.
Personally, I got most of my news from the TV - the BBC in fact - only switching largely to the internet once I got into the office. How about you?
Image via Wikipedia
So, popping my day job hat on, what have RBI's pool of bloggers been saying about the general election?
Estates Gazette's bloggers have been particularly busy:
- The Pint of Milk Test notes that No.10 Downing Street is heading to HMO (House in Multiple Occupancy) status.
- The Planning Blog frets that planning is going to be pushed further down the agenda.
- Paul Norman spots that the minister responsible for the Olympics Legacy fell to the Tories.
- Jackie Sadeck reveals a past of political protest - but thinks this is the wrong time for a fight over proportional representation.
New Scientist's S Word blog thinks that science lost the election.
Community Care's Mad World blog is running a poll on what its readers want from a hung parliament, while The Big Picture asks if more people with learning disabilities voted this time around.
XpertHR asks if public sector strikes are inevitable.
Computer Weekly's Tony Collins notes that the minister responsible for local service provision contracts lost his seat to the Tories by the slimmest of margins.
Microscope's Simon Quicke thinks the result is bad for small businesses.
The Asian Chemical Connections blog from ICIS bemoans the lack of personality in politicians today.
And Farmers Weekly's Matthew Naylor notes that England has a Tory majority - it's only the devolved Scotland and Wales keeping us hung...
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Like so many others, I stopped off to vote on the way in to work this morning. I had three separate ballot papers: for the national government, for the local council and for the local mayor.
I was particularly pleased to be able to vote for local blogger Max Calo, who has done some great campaigning work in the area in recent years, and is standing for a council seat for the LibDems.
This has been the first general election of my adult life when the outcome feels very much in doubt. I'm looking forward to the counts and over-night coverage immensely. Are you?
Don't you love blog posts that save their most interesting observation for the last paragraph?
Of course, if we do get a deeply hung parliament then that will also raise all sorts of interesting procedural issues for journalists - especially the BBC. Generally, governments - especially new ones - are given the dominant position in news coverage and allowed to dictate terms and set agendas because they have the popular mandate. But if we have a minority administration it raises the question of just how to balance stories.Based on the polls, we might not have long to answer that question...
Stephen Fry just articulated with astonishing clarity and wit exactly what I was trying to say last week .
Choice quotes:
For a Labour voter to hate a Tory voter or vice versa is for us all to stumble into the revolting and nonsensical little-endian big-endian madness that Swift pilloried in Gulliver's Travels.
However one thing has remained constant in my political affiliations, and that is a deep contempt and fear of tribalism. When I meet a Labour voter who can only hiss, stamp and fume at any Tory, or a Conservative voter who can only jeer and condemn a Labour voter then I bridle, bristle and simply writhe with indignation. Let this be known and celebrated: we all have the right to vote the way we want. We all have our reasons and motivations and they do not justify anyone insulting or reviling us.Marvellous.
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I'm surprised by how little reaction to this story has cropped up amongst the social spaces I inhabit online:
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I didn't, but I explained I was a journalist for The Independent looking to speak to a man at an address in the area, who was standing as a candidate in the local elections, about allegations of postal vote fraud. "Can we see your note pad," the boy asked. I declined and then the first punch came - landing straight on my nose, sending blood and tears streaming down my face. Then another. Then another.An Independent journalist, investigating electoral fraud, is beaten up in the pursuit of a story. As Brian Micklethwait, a blogger whose work I have long enjoyed, puts it on Samizdata, a libertarian blog:
Isn't trying to learn the truth about things, sometimes naively and foolishly, going where people who already know it all are too wise to venture, what journalism is all about?
Yes. And that's why I think this might be a more important story than many that have washed over the media in this election campaign.
