Different, but the Same

I got a bit of recording done, before being interrupted by the biannual visit of my absurdly rich aunt and uncle. These are the kind of retired couple who go on at least one luxury world cruise a year and secretly believe bluecollar jobs are an optical illusion. They are also extremely evasive about how they got so stinking rich.

In the evening, I became a scrutineer - in part of the vote counting process, but mainly of the candidates. There were four:

Crab (Labour) - an amiable imbicile who debates by regurgitating soundbites. Not a bad man, but a sheep who turns wolverine simply because the shepherd snarls.

Hancock (Liberal Democrat) - product of a family of professional politicians. Decent people in private, ruthless opportunists in public.

Lowey (Conservative) - a vacuum disguised as a nonentity. Typical tory clone. The kind my aunt and uncle reflexively vote for.

Sprake (Respect) - without doubt the best person we could have stood, and I'd still say that if he wasn't also a friend.

The results were:

LibDem: 1276
Lab: 583
Con: 476
Res: 217 (8,45% of the vote)
Spoiled: 16
Turnout: 26%

So, not a bad result for an infant party standing in an area long sewn up by another party. Our foot is in the door.

Lee, John M and myself then spent the next 6 hours following the rest of the elections on the BBC, and getting smashed on vodka. That is, they commented on the BBC coverage, and I got smashed and watched them do it.

We had generally expected Labour to lose maybe 300 seats, and the beneficiaries to be the LibDems, the Tories, Respect and the Greens, the BNP and others, in that order. And the Labour losses hopefully being enough to finally get rid of Blair.

The full results aren't in yet, but Labour have lost 'only' about 225, and the major beneficiaries are the Tories, followed by the LibDems, Greens and others. Respect made less headway than anticipated, and the BNP more.

None of which is encouraging, and some downright worrying. No doubt there will be endless dissections, interpretations and debates for the next month. Which I have no intent of documenting.