It's the lull before the storm, and I'm relaxing at home in anticipation of a busy 36 hours.
Tonight, I'll be covering the local elections in England on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One special programme (which begins at 2340).
But as well as that, I'll be blogging here from around ten o'clock, analysing the results and responding to some of your comments on what promises to be a very interesting night.
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Comments
Some predictions: Low turnout, wins for BNP, Tories not doing as well as they ought, LibDems do better than expected, fewer NOC councils, and every politician trying to spin the results in their favour. I am too cynical!
Bet you won't see Tony if it all goes pear-shaped for him!
I think there might be a mysterious spate of stranglings in the Palace of Westminster tonight!
Does this mean that my Licence Fee is paying for your overtime tonight? Could you exclude my share and take from someone else as I'm Welsh?
Good luck. Hope that the results prove to be as exciting as everyone expects.
More to the point - what is the secret armour in the political correspondent's ammunition which enables them to be up, coherant, lucid and even interesting (!) all night and most of the day after?
Enjoy. Does the adjustment in polling hours make much difference?
Don't work too hard.
Hopefully we can all enjoy the Schadenfruende of New Labour bearing the brunt of the worm turning and biting back.
It will be interesting to see how Labour spin their way out of some, hopefully, dreadful results.
I look forward to your normal and impeccable service!!
Keep up the great work.
(Checks listings) What, no Peter Snow?
The swingometer just won't be the same without him!
I bet it's going to be hell for you Nick. Reporting all of those miseries that are about to befall our glorious leaders.
Just think about doorstepping thos ministers that refused you an interview or two, who were busy at the time and who are now obliged to face the music.
You won't have any personal glee in your job tonight will you Nick?
After all, duty calls,and you are only doing your job, arent you!
Gary
If TB goes after these elections just who is available for GB to form a Cabinet/government with? Getting rid of Teflon Tone will not to my mind improve our prospects of better leadership or government, but just more of the worn out dross who are clinging tooth and nail to power now.
In reply to rex... there's no IF about it going pair-shaped, it's pretty much a guarantee!
I'll we watching - it's time for a change and I'm hoping for some dramatic results.
..that's except for us viewers in Scotland, who aren't allowed to see what's going on down south!
A lot of very good, very proud and very dedicated local councillors are going to lose their seats tohight because of John Prescotts adultery.
Oh dear.....
Overseas test matches and election nights just kill my body clock.
kim
I'm confident Labour will see its share of the vote drop, but I wonder where those votes will go instead? I'm expected a very fragmented political map; I expect Labour to lose ground to the Tories in London (just as they did at last year's General Election) and to the Liberal Democrats in the North. I also think local parties and independents will do well, assuming they can tap into a specific set of voters' concerns.
Big Edna will be watching tonight, Nick. If it's as hellish for New Labour as by all rights it should be, please show as little mercy as you're allowed. Ministerial squirming is the least the voters deserve on this beautiful May night! Now, time for Edna to hit the Glenlivet, sit back and wait.
Focus on local issues. Look around the eyes, not in the eyes, around the eyes.
Bloody nose for Labour tonight.
Give it two Months however and Labour will be in the lead in the Polls again.
Cameron Vs Straw Next General election.
The Conservatives and Lib Dems must surely turn the electoral map blue and yellow this evening. The last week's events have been a gift for them.
I suspect the BNP vote will rise by tens of thousands but might only translate into a handful of extra council seats. Whilst it should be reported I do hope it only gets proportionate coverage - ie. not that much when you consider the hundreds of seats at stake across all the authorities. We should also remember the places where they lose their deposit and can't field candidates too.
The most memorable thing for me in this election?
Cameron, Blair, Clarke - Preza?
No - the most memorable and enjoyable sight was watching doors being slamed in the faces of BNP people on the doorsteps. They actually made people I know turn out to vote - just to vote agasint them.
Now get updating since you got a plug on the show
Urgent message to Blog.
Mr. Dimbleby needs make-up attention.
Upper lip, shiny, bright and dazzling. Effect is like a black and white minstrel without the shoe polish. Very worrying.
You look sweet !
I'm in the East Riding so there's no election here (shame) but I'm hoping that the Tories will do as well elsewhere as they did here in 2004: I just wish David Cameron was doing a better job of maintaining that early momentum; do you think that William Hague is failing to show him where his own early honeymoon period went sour?
Hi Nick,
As I watch you reading this live on Digital TV I wonder what effect technology can have on how voters interact with government.
It seems that as we all have access to blogs and podcasts, we all become media moguls and the vox-populi seems to take on new significance.
I emailed each of the three main parties and asked them why I should support them. Only the Tories replied.
Room for improvement for the Lib Dems and Labour... Maybe they need a reboot?
(Great blog and great programme on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 1 btw :-)
Ronnie said:
"No - the most memorable and enjoyable sight was watching doors being slamed in the faces of BNP people on the doorsteps. They actually made people I know turn out to vote - just to vote agasint them."
you were lucky, at least you got to see some local candidates (i asume you also got the other partys too?).
to give the readers an overview:
Wythenshawe south manchester,
as europes largest 'garden city' capable of 100.000+ people and more, with manchester international airport and the worlds first hart transplant hospital right here in wythenshawe , yet lowest health and income per head in all the country, got exactly 2 small flyers, both from labour (the incumbent party here, even before the 'new' crept into the name) candidates.
not one single candidate actully lives in wythenshawe, never mind the main, woodhouse park, benchill, newall green, or peelhall centeral to the main civic center.
its been the same for general elections, not just local elections as today, when wythenshawe was first constructed many years ago, every single party had condidates liveing and bringing in investment, today we cant even keep the main kwicksave
shopand they pulled out of civic center, the only main shopping center.
will any mainline lib-dem or conservative candidates ever make the effort to at least show their faces here in the next few years to come and help bring wythenshawe back from the brink and make it a potential for internation inovation and investment.
one final note,why didnt the tv's content cover the election as the populus were being asked to vote, not after the poll stations are closed is to late to make any difference to encuraging people to actully get out there and vote, bad show ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳,vut at least your showing nice local elections gfx now.
the ITV have totally lost the plot and have itv play on $%$%^^&***&^&^.
sorry for the rant, i just wanted to point out how my area is totally ignored, i wonder if yours was too?.
no profit it it, i assume....
london,london,london ad infin.....
I know that the main parties rely heavily on changes in percentages. However my question is, do these changes mean that people are changing their vote or are Labour voters not turning out and Conservative voters being motivated to turn up at the polling stations? Surley for the Conservatives it needs to be the former so as to prove their change in image has actually captured the attention of the swing voters.
I would watch you on TV, but although I am a Londoner as I am a student in Edinburgh, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scotland seem to think no one north of the border is bothered with the elections and have a movie on. Get your act together ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ - these elections have national implications, not just south of the border.
the point about people voting BNP in protest to the current gov, does this
point to the need for a 'non of the above' box on all future voteing papers ?.
Crawley has become, for the first time, under conservative control. As the most marginal parliamntary seat in the country, with a labour win of only 34 votes over the conservatives, things are getting interesting.
I am Crawley born and bred. It is reasurring to know that the control of my council has just been decided on who picks the right envelope. Democracy, gotta love it.
tony must fight the next Election and finish what he started and fullil
the promeises then maybe,after another 5 years leave as one of our Partys greatist PRIMEMINESTERS i
have voted labour 35 years i like a lot of what hes passed for me as a gay man