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The spectacle

An hour after the polls closed, and the BBC has tortured its exit poll to death. They keep on talking it down, because they can’t believe that the LIb Dems can really have lost seats, as the exit poll says.

A single election result is in. A rock-solid Labour majority has been slightly dented by the Conservative swing. Vernon Bogdanor extrapolates it to say that the Conservatives will get an overall majority.

The limited pleasure of the election broadcast will fade soon. I enjoyed the first few minutes as the BBC’s ludicrously garish setup battled with good old-fashioned gremlins. One panel of a giant bar graph of the projected seats vanished for several minutes. Michael Gove’s artificially rejuvenated mug loomed at us while his mike failed utterly. Jeremy Paxman bellowed at an interviewee as if he could make him respond faster that way, for all the world as if he’d never encountered satellite delay before.

Mariella Frostrup thinks it’s terrible that we’re all in (strangely pronounced) thrall to the markets, and what a pity we haven’t invented a better and more humane way to manage our finances. Watching her say that makes me want to go to bed, and not in a good way.

Oh bloody hell. Jeremy Vine is knocking down huge trains of CGI dominoes for some reason. Generations yet unborn will injure themselves laughing at the Beeb’s presentation tonight.

6 comments to The spectacle

  • guy herbert

    What’s sort of scary is that the Labour core vote – essentially a payroll vote – is so utterly solid. Britain is still in the grip of the plunder principle and skimming the event horizon of the total state.

  • Johnathan Pearce

    Labour’s “core” vote is essentially that of imbecilic, parasitic scum who live off benefits of some form or other.

    (Thought I should just get that off my chest).

  • Kevin B

    I got as far as watching some obese woman in a hideous red dress declared the winner in some Sunderland constituency. When I reflected that 19,000 of my fellow citizens had voted for this person to run their life for them, (for that’s what voting implies these days), then I had to switch off and crawl into my bed.

    The nightmares were not as bad.

  • James

    That and those Celtic work-shy subsidy junkies.

    Had to get that off my chest.

  • Laird

    “Generations yet unborn will injure themselves laughing at the Beeb’s presentation tonight.”

    Great line!

  • Paul Marks

    “the markets” – i.e. “market forces” – which are simply the INDIVIDUAL CHOICES of lots of buyers and sellers.

    “What a pity we have not invented a better way to manage our finances”.

    Collectivist cow.

    “Sexist” – if you like.