Still here

I'm still in my armchair, slightly further from Skipton but still within the Skipton and Ripon constituency.

Now that the excitement of the US election is done with, we have the prospect of the Brown bounce developing into a 2009 election.

I'll still be posting on what's done to attract my vote to the LibDems or any other political party in either the Keighley (solid Labour) or Skipton/Ripon (solid Conservative) constituencies. Last time round, it was negligible.

Dispatches

Now that all the excitement (ironic face) of the election has died down, we have the dispatches programme on labour's victory

An undercover reporter was part of the machine that convinced the country to vote labour, and exposed their tactics. It clearly showed how, in the era of manufactured consent, democracy is a loose term in modern britain.

Then I started to reflect. Some of the tricks that labour pulled I had seen with the LibDems. Such as the letters.

There was a critism of labour, Party HQ would write letters indicating the party's view of the conservatives or libdems and then send it to party workers to send to their local papers. Only the letters wouldn't say they were labour supporters, they would say "as a former libdem supporter" or "as someone who previously voted conservative" and then launch into labour policy.

I was asked to send such letters, as written by libdem HQ to my local paper. They weren't as bad as the labour ones by any means; but the same tactic was in play.

As a wise man once wrote - if this is reality, I'm so sorry dear; to be a spoil-sport personality for another year.

This will be my last post to this blog, it was intended merely to cover the election campaign, in two seats that didn't really matter. I suppose I have to reflect on Winston Churchill's infamous quote that democracy is the worst of all political systems, except for all the other ones.

Thanks for reading.

BBC NEWS | Election 2005 | Weblog | Black and white

BBC NEWS | Election 2005 | Weblog | Black and white: "Eagle-eyed Press Association photographer Phil Noble was at the count for Keighley, west Yorkshire when he spotted this one: A pair of Nike's Stand Up Speak UP anti-racism wristbands - a must-have among teenagers and promoted nationally by Arsenal's Thierry Henry. "

Skipton

I have no idea why, but we had to wait for Friday afternoon for the Skipton and Ripon declaration. As expected, the Tories walked it. Slightly up for LibDem, a bit more up for Labour.

It struck me looking at the results that there seemed to be few changes of seats, but that's probably because I'm basing my opinions on 1997.

Keighley

Well Keighley declared about 1.30 (to be honest I can't remember :-) )- thankfully the BNP came last (although with a scarilly high number of votes). The LibDem didn't really stand a chance and the V. tall Conservative candidate cam a way behind the V. small Anne Cryer. It was pointed out that if BNP hadn't been there, and all their votes gone to the Conservatives, they would have won.

The night...

I did the traditional staying-up until victory of an election night last night. For me it was depressingly dull. The first few seats pointed to large LibDem swings, yet there were legions of Labour Holds for the first few holds, which then turned way to Con Holds as the conservative seats started declaring.

A few v. important victories for the LDs, a few annoying setbacks. 10 more seats than last election, 7 more than when the election was called. A watershed it most definitely wasn't.

Howevera piece of Peter Snow analysis brings hope. Before last night the swings to LibDem required for seats to change hands were huge. Now they are manageable. Assuming LDs hold it together, and the Conservatives don't, 2009 should be the breakthrough year :-)

And today we hear Michael Howard will stand down some time in the next 4 years. When Paddy Ashdown said that after an election, if I remember correctly, the LDs top guns went into a phony war period, and so couldn't capitalise on their successes that election. Let's hope they reenter their habitual infighting.

Ilkley Rocks: (non) Poster Boy

So this is what Keighley's conservative candidate looks like - Charles Kennedy's evil nephew perhaps?

(From an Ilkley blogger- who has lots of interesting stuff about the people who almost make me want to give up my nationality.)

DeadBrain: Election 2005 - Paxman: The Game

An amusing concept...

Slow blinking...

In response to In a Skipton Armchair: "Charles Kennedy has one of the lowest blink rates in the world. "

one fo my commentators has asked what it means - to be honest, I don't think the expert mentionned what it meant, or it must has passed me by. Rapid blinking means (in some people) that they're lying (example was Anne Widdecombe praising Michael Howard) - so hopefully it means that our Charles is a honest guy :-)

BBC NEWS | Election 2005 | Weblog

BBC NEWS | Election 2005 | Weblog: "How could a leader who preaches the virtues of playing by the rules ride in a vehicle with no valid tax disc? "

Conservative election broadcast

I had a holiday in Australia last year, coincidentally during the final build up to their election where John Howard beat someone.

It was interesting to see the Conservative election broadcast tonight as it was virtually copied from the main advert that the same election mastermind organised for the Australian campaign.

Over there you are guarranteed in every advert break to have one or two for both of the major parties. In John Howard's case, you would see a (not very pleasant looking) photo of the opposition, what he said he would do, a newspaper clipping of what someone thought of what he did and then the alternative of what would happen under the "good guys"

Charles Kennedy has one of the lowest blink rates in the world.

Fascinating programme on tonight by a body langauge expert on the various body language clues given out by our potential leaders.

If Michael Howard pushes his tongue out at you, you're probably saying the right thing :-)

LibDems spotted!

3 weeks in and this week I'm finally handed a leaflet. A home-county-accented 20 something handed me a brief description of why Nader Fekri, LibDem candidate for Keighley, opposed the war in iraq.

On the back there's a description of him (full marks for his causes - Amnesty, medecins sans frontieres, NSPCC), below a description of a LibDem bigwig from the house of lords who's visiting Keighley that afternoon.

As this has been the biggest that any party has attempted to influence me - so I will be delighted to vote him

EXCEPT - I'm not in his constituency (5 minute drive away).