British Election Results Projected On Big Ben Today

[Are_grits_groceries]

Today, Brits will vote on a new prime minister, with the results being projected on the landmark tower known as Big Ben, in real time. It's not the first time projections have been beamed, but it'll be interactive at least.

It's the first time the election results will be beamed on St Stephen's Tower (to give it its full name, as Big Ben is actually the bell inside the tower), with the picture included here a mock-up of what the last general election's results would've looked like splashed on the front of the building. The BBC is behind the scheme, but before you ask—I doubt there'll be daleks patrolling the base.


http://gizmodo.com/5531603/british-election-results-projected-on-big-ben-tomorrow

Muh... this should be interesting.

[LeftishBrit]

1. I hope it's not TOO interesting. I don't want the Tories in power. May Big Ben strike their doom!

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. I agree with that.

I hope whatever color represents the Liberal Dems zooms to the top.

[Syrinx]

3. As a group, is DU for...

Labour and Brown, or the Liberal Democrats and Clegg?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Not many are pro-Brown, but some see Labour as the better party

Some of the stuff it's done since 1997 is good, and you can look back further than that and see a good party. Brown is in some ways representative of modern Labour - he started out left, and was seduced by Blair's Third Way.

I'm Lib Dem, myself, but there can be a certain amount of tension between traditional Labour - basically union-based, and the Lib Dems, who are more 'middle class'. Here's quite a good blog on the divide in the left:

It is very dangerous to make assumptions about anyone in this modern kaleidoscopic world. But I’m going to stick my neck out and guess that Gillian Duffy doesn’t read the Guardian. Apologies to Mrs Duffy in advance if I’ve got it wrong. If I’m right then she would be utterly perplexed by its leader this morning. The problem for the left now is that it is not just split between two parties. It is split between two worlds. One is the Guardian’s world- professional, comfortable in many ways, idealistic, individualistic, convulsive, rational, modern, and, yes, elitist. The other is Mrs Duffy’s- traditional, precarious, in search of security and certainty, emotional, nostalgic, rooted, and plain-spoken.
...

http://www.anthonypainter.co.uk/2010/05/01/mrs-duffy-and-the-liberal-moment/

[LeftishBrit]

5. More AGAINST the Tories and Cameron than either of the above, I'd say

I prefer Brown to Clegg, but I prefer my LibDem MP Evan Harris to most Labour MPs. In any case, I voted tactically for him because the alternative in my constituency would be a Tory.

Blair messed things up badly for the Labour Party. He was a Tory in not very thin disguise. In 2007, Brown became our first Labour Prime Minister in 28 years. He is very much on the *right wing* of the Labour Party, but he's still Labour and not Tory. He is also by politicians' standards rather aloof, socially awkward, has a bit of what in such circles is termed an 'anger management problem', and is not telegenic. But he is much more *competent* than Blair was, or than Cameron would be. Things improved in education and the NHS after he took over. But Blair sowed the wind, and Brown is reaping the whirlwind. It would be too strong to say that I'm a fan of Brown (none of them are progressive enough for me, and I can't really forgive him for going along with Blair on the Iraq war, instead of resigning like Robin Cook). But he's *much* better than Blair. Unfortunately he can't or won't distance himself from Blair, or say the truth: "Labour have been in office for three years, not 13. Blair was even more of a Thatcherite than John Major."

Clegg has been running, fairly successfully, on the platform of 'Vote for me - I am neither Blair/Brown nor Cameron'. But I am not quite sure what his policies would be if he was elected. In fact, the LibDems will not be the majority party, but would have a lot of influence in a hung parliament. He is rattling the RW media sufficiently that they are running all kinds of smear campaigns against him and his party.

A Labour/LibDem coalition is probably the best that we can hope to get; and might be better than either party on its own. Too many PMs become 'elected dictators' from having too large a majority.

Just hoping that it's NOT Cameron. His dad was Blair, his mum was Thatcher, and they sent him to Eton.