The election results are trickling in; Labour have retained a number of seats; the Lib Dems are getting significant swings (5-10%), though they're all falling short of unseating Labour. So far, Labour have lost two seats: Putney to the Tories (interestingly, Putney is an area popular with South Africans, who, as Commonwealth citizens, are entitled to vote, and who are said to be conservative on racial issues; I wonder whether this was a factor), and a Welsh seat to an ex-Labour independent. Exit polls say that Labour's majority may be slashed to 66 or so.

The BBC's election coverage seems quite similar to the ABC's Australian election coverage (the computer-generated bar charts and swingometers are there), though there's a carnival atmosphere that the Australian elections don't have, with elements of silliness and irreverence, such as a George W. Bush impersonator at the BBC's election party, and a computer-generated mockup of the party leaders racing down Downing St.

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com/ | Fri May 6 02:50:41 2005

Yeah, looks like the Yellows are doing reasonably well for a third party. I've got the BBC's web-based doodads going and am kind of hoping to see the scorecard go past LD50.

There seems to be enough of a swing against Labour to make Blair resign but not enough to let the Tories back in. Decent result. They had Gordon Brown's seat acceptance speech with the news report here. Sounds a bit like he's sharpening the knives for Tony.

Posted by: watermelon boy | http:// | Fri May 6 03:08:58 2005

What's the deal with the Lib Dems? Where do they sit on the political compass, and where do they sit in relation to Australian politics?

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com/ | Fri May 6 03:28:53 2005

Like the Australian Democrats, only with substance.

Posted by: datakid | http:// | Sat May 7 02:08:16 2005

that's not what i'd call a glowing review...I guess it's ok if yr into democracy, but if yr into change, it sounds awful...

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org/ | Sat May 7 20:35:16 2005

There are also Greens here, but they're a tiny fringe party at the Westminster level. Apparently they have had more success in the EU parliament, largely thanks to established Green parties on the continent.

Posted by: psychbloke | http://psychbloke.blogspot.com | Sun May 8 09:21:47 2005

Hey well, the Libdems managed one big cultural shift - a big cheese on Peter Snow's animated battle front pie chart - but still complete absence from the swingometer.....

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org/ | Sun May 8 13:43:27 2005

Kennedy also got a computer-animated puppet in the race-up-Downing-St. segment the BBC ran. And there were Labour/Tories-vs.-LibDems swingometers in races where this made the most sense.

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