General Election Thread

5' Regional opt at 2255, the South East segment is rather Open University in style with a series of 'graphics' with a presenter walking from one flat to another and a nice swingometer describing which SE seats are at risk of change...

Somewhat Hilarious that Julian Willson (long serving BBC Racing host) is at a bookies...

I think that's an ANCHOR ... a BBC designed caption generator that was first on-air for the Moon Landings 1969 as far as I understand it. Might be wrong... when did Ryley or Aston capgens come in to play?

No, there was a different set for October, here's a small pic of it...
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40143000/jpg/_40143826_burnet74_203.jpg

As you can see it's a different scoreboard, and in addition Robin Day's bit was to Burnet's left, rather than, as it is here, his right, while the big screen is on our right and doesn't have the snazzy venetian blinds effect. There was also a different theme tune and Sue Lawley was introduced as part of the "team", appearing in the titles and everything, but she only did the London opts so most viewers would have barely seen her.

As for this election, it goes on for ages, at 4pm the caption announces "CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMES NORMALLY ON BBC-1 NOW ON BBC-2" which Alastair reads out, and David Butler tells his kids to switch over. On the last repeat it went on until 6.45 and then Alastair announces they'll be back for more at 9.25. The news bulletins at lunchtime and teatime are cut out but we do get Barbara Edwards doing the weather as she's in the election studio and you can see they've just stuck the map over Bob McKenzie's charts.

This is a fascinating programme, and relentlessly grim, but Alastair isn't very good, he's extremely pompous and, while it's a grim situation, he doesn't have any of the energy that the Dimbelbys or Cliff Michelmore bring to the event.

If you think there's a lot of picture interference here, 1970 was virtually all picture interference.

Complete waste of the capacity on Freeview which this week could have been put to much better use by being made available for the Winter Olympics when the MPs have yet another holiday.

Oh really?~ What about the waste of limited Freeview capacity that QVC, Bid TV, Rocks & Co, Price Drop TV & Ideal World are.

These channels are a bigger waste of Freeview capacity than BBC Parliament.

Er... yes, but the BBC doesn't have the power to temporarily replace any of those channels with an interactive feed whereas they could potentially with BBC Parliament.

Been watching bits of this all day, fascinating stuff, particularly with the likelihood of a similar Hung Parliament situation this year. Interesting to see that, despite the cardboard graphics, the general format of Election Night coverage hasn't changed much over the years.

A young Keith Graves just appeared!

And what about next week when MPs return? Further more, the Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly and Welsh Assembly were all sitting this week. There was plenty for BBC Parliament to cover. Not everything in Politics is all about Westminster these days, and the sooner people realise that, the better.

There have been a lot of rumours going around today that Brown might call an April election tomorrow. Although there have also been others saying that it's only going to be the campaign slogan launch as planned, it'd be odd for him to see the Queen on a Saturday and we should all still expect May 6th.

As Sky always likes to launch it's election campaign graphics pretty much after the first commercial break once it's called, I wonder if they've got everything ready at the push of a button if needed tomorrow, however unlikely it might be.

The Chilcott Inquiry stands in the way, Brown cannot duck out of appearing at that now (week after next apparantly) without cries of foul being heard. He simply cannot in the middle of a campaign appear for a day in primetime on the news Channels. The logistics of Easter seem to preclude dates up to 15th April. There's the issue of NI Devolution to process before 12th April too.

The Logic still seems to point to 6th May with Parliament being dissolved on the morning of the 12th April following completion of the NI issue.

Realistically the only dates left in the Calendar are 15th, 22nd April and 6th May.

29th April being excluded because of the Bank Holiday on 3rd May and the availability of adequate count staff as a result on 30th, the Friday of a bank holiday weekend. Campaigning over Easter will be messy with some offence inevitably caused if politicing is seen to be done on Good Friday or Easter Sunday, so that raises doubts over the two other April Dates additionally.

Brown could break with convention entirely and actually allow the parliament to expire, in which case the election would be held on 3rd June.

In that unlikely event, I wonder whether the English local elections would be delayed until June?

EDIT:
I did like this accidental peek into the 'magic' of TV, 1970s style!

http://i50.tinypic.com/o5ywyf.jpg

Actually, DVB Cornwall, there are two dates prior to those you've suggested; 18th March and 25th March.

The Chilcott Inquiry doesn't stand in the way of the election at all. Sir John Chilcott has stated publicly that once Parliament is dissolved, the Inquiry will suspend its sitting until after Polling Day. This would easily resolve the problem of the PM monopolising media coverage during the campaign. There has been no announcement concerning the PM's testimony at the Chilcott Inquiry and the dates in circulation at present (3rd or 4th March) are speculation.

As far as Easter is concerned, that won't pose an issue either - Easter begins on 28th March (Palm Sunday). Given this, Polling Day could quite easily be 25th March. Rather conveniently too, Parliament has yet to rule on when its Easter recess should be http://www.parliament.uk/what_s_on/recess.cfm. It is possible, therefore, that Polling Day could be 25th March. In such circumstances, it is feasible that Parliament could reconvene on 29th March and sit until Maundy Thursday (1st April) before rising for a long weekend.

I'm not sure how much attention will be directed at the NI situation. There is a strong case for dissolving Parliament and electing new representatives in the Province. There have been rumblings in the last few days that a slight shift in the current political composition in Ulster would result in a political landscape more amenable to the wishes of the Government, vis-à-vis power sharing and police powers. Equally, given how fragile the deal brokered is, an election would (if Labour lost) dump rather unceremoniously the NI issue squarely in the Conservative's lap.

It is entirely possible therefore that with the launch of Labour's election platform and themes tomorrow, Parliament could be dissolved anytime between this Monday and the following Monday. The last possible date for a dissolution (if Polling Day is 25th March) is 1st March. With the polls showing a narrowing of the gap between the Conservatives and Labour (7 points), given that tomorrow is the launch of the election platform, given that the ONS will, in all likelihood, release figures in April showing that the economy has slipped back into recession (a nightmare scenario a week before a May Polling Day), and given that there must, at some point, be tax rises and spending cuts to rein in the public finances and debt, an election on 25th March is likely. And that means a dissolution anytime between now and 1st March.