Well, tomorrow will be the Big Day.
I'm all set. For the first time in my life I'm going to either stay up or (more likely!) wake up at 3:00am, when they expect the first results to come in.
I've got Friday off, I've got the web (assuming my occasionally glitchy router holds up - can these things wear out? I've been rebooting it a lot lately...), I've got Stuart Sharpe's gorgeous little election app on my iPhone, and I've got whatever fellow bloggers and Tweeters will also be up at that unusually early hour to keep me company.
And it strikes me that - with the exception of the Leader's Debates on TV - it's been blogging that has taught me more about the differences, personalities and proposed policies of the main and minor parties than the MSM has done.
Whether it's been semi-serious political comparisions of the main parties with breakfast cereals at LfaT's blog, or motorbikes at Hogsday's blog, or hard-hitting finncial analysis of just what sort of mess we are really in at Burning Our Money, or incisive analysis of just why some events of this election cycle encapsulate our nation at Anna Raccoon's blog and Counting Cats..., or in-depth looks at just what we are likely letting ourselves in for at Dumb Jon's, I've been far, far more impressed with the quality of bloggers and blogging than with any number of talking heads on TV or well-paid pundits in the dead tree press.
So, here's to blogging. And here's to our political system. May it serve us all well tomorrow.
Or if we make the wrong choices, serve us right!
23 comments:
or (more likely!) wake up at 3:00am, when they expect the first results to come in.
I think you'll have to get up earlier than that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hap7ft76n4Q
Thanks for that post. I also have Friday off and intend to stay up to the early hours watching the results come in.
All my colleagues think I am quite wierd.
Me and Mrs RWG have Friday off as well.
"And it strikes me that - with the exception of the Leader's Debates on TV - it's been blogging that has taught me more about the differences, personalities and proposed policies of the main and minor parties than the MSM has done".
Me too! To think, I was so ignorant of politics before I started reading blogs.
I am thankful to all those who have put forward a myriad of ideas and opinions. They have helped me see what a sham our politics is.
I am sad that the MSM have let the electorate down by printing lies and avoiding the truth.
I have done my best to pass the information on to others.
I'll be there with my pencil and paper - and you'll need to awake around midnight when we can expect Sunderland Central which is a long shot Tory target.
The MSM have been keen to claim that they are in charge of information, via the three debates, but it's clear that the bloggers still have it.
The MSM puts out bland, generic crap which is less useful than no information at all - because it confuses, rather than educates.
One thing bloggers do well, which the MSM cannot emulate, is voice their true opinions. That's why the government an the MSM hate them so much!
"Can these things wear out? I've been rebooting it a lot lately."
Yes, they do. Note how you get them "free".
Thanks for the kind words. /blush.
I'm not sure it's worth bothering to go to sleep to start with. After all, who would want to miss several hours of biased journos and TV talking heads telling us what to think?
BTW you may also want to find a website to look at the gilts market. It's been opened specially from 0100 Friday so that traders can react to the results to make sure they don't get caught short (pun intended) by the way the results look overnight. I suspect the reaction of people who stand to make/lose a lot of money depending on which party looks like it will be forming the next gummint will be quite instructive.
O/T If you get bored, you can try to make sense of our old mate Shahrokh Mireskandari's latest tussel in the libel court before Mr Justice Eady.
Mireskandari v Associated Newspapers Ltd. [2010] EWHC 967 (QB) (04 May 2010)
It takes a while to get going but the judgment helpfully reminds us that Mireskandari was the legal advisor to Keith Vaz and Ali Dizaei, shouts 'racism' at every opportunity (he'd doing it here, too), he's been struck off for not really being qualified but having wiggled in with a fake degree, and that there are outstanding allegations of deception against him.
You might be able to work out what he actually wanted - even Eady doesn't seem too clear - but what ever it was, the case was chucked out.
No doubt this one will run and run.
Well I'll be up with ya Julia, masochist as I am. I rarely go to bed before 4am anyway, and have never had any problem staying awake for 24 hours straight.
I have just been watching Gurnin Gordon talking to a room of stooges in Carlisle, only two of whom could come up with a question when asked.Even the microphones had had enough and packed up on him.
Whoever taught the cunt to smile should be tortured to death very very slowly. He looks like the last days of Richard Madhouse Nixon. Totally self delusional with an almost mad grinning self belief.
I want to see him humiliated at the very least, prosecuted and in jail if possible. I want to see him imprisoned on St Helina writing his remaindered memoirs entitled-
But I saved the World! Why did you spurn me???
I want to see them all signing on, Balls, Campbell, The Millipeads, Harridan, Smith the whole goddam crew!
But later there was iDave speaking from Bristol (no I was not in the audience of the hand picked).
He used the phrase Imagine a country... 14 times in a row (this is supposed to be "empassioned" so says the BBC).
Vote for i Dave and an imaginary country is exactly what you are going to get.
Still none of this matters much. Quietly in the background, while nobody is paying attention, I think the second Korean War is about to kick off.
All this rising for early morning elections.
Before bleakfast even.
It's unnatural I tell you, frightens the horses and all that.
I'm looking forward to Peter Snow popping up with the usual pyrotechnic gadget.
Thanks to the blogs I've been reading, I can't see myself getting much sleep until Morley and Outwood is in - Go Calvert!
To while away the time, there's always the BBC's 'Election Night Party Pack', featuring themed games, word bingo and party leader face-masks.
Looks like someone in their politics department hasn't had enough to do over the past few weeks!
It might be worth checking your router manufacturers website to see if there is a newer firmware for it.
If there is, make a backup of the configuration settings first. Then install it and see if it improves matters.
Probably best to wait until the election results are in - just in case!
Many brands have options in the menu to check for, and install updates, and make backups.
I agree with you the real voice of the people is here , teaching for those who wish to learn. There are voices of every political persuation talking things out, sorting the wheat from the chaff!!!
We are learning from a kalidoscope of viewpoints and nowhere is the partyline accepted unconditionally, thank you all for being so open and honest, I know where the people I would like to form the next government are...they are on here blogging the truth as they see it!
More power to you all...yes I too will be staying up to see what occurs... I just hope that when the result comes in I am not so depressed that I kill myself!!!
verification 'comin'
"I think you'll have to get up earlier than that."
Oooh, that IS early return!
"I am thankful to all those who have put forward a myriad of ideas and opinions. They have helped me see what a sham our politics is."
Indeed! Now I really do know what Chruchill meant by democracy being the worst of political systems 'except for all the others'....
"One thing bloggers do well, which the MSM cannot emulate, is voice their true opinions. That's why the government an the MSM hate them so much!"
Quite. It'll be interesting to see what plans iDave has, should he be in the hotseat this time tomorrow...
"Yes, they do. Note how you get them "free"."
Ah, yes. Good point. Looks like I'll need to get a new one then.
"I suspect the reaction of people who stand to make/lose a lot of money depending on which party looks like it will be forming the next gummint will be quite instructive."
Oh, yes...
"...the judgment helpfully reminds us that Mireskandari was the legal advisor to Keith Vaz and Ali Dizaei..."
Crikey, what a resume!
"He looks like the last days of Richard Madhouse Nixon."
Heh!
"Thanks to the blogs I've been reading, I can't see myself getting much sleep until Morley and Outwood is in - Go Calvert!"
Oh yes! That's another I've bookmarked on the election app.
"It might be worth checking your router manufacturers website to see if there is a newer firmware for it."
Ooh, good idea, thanks. I'll give that a whirl, at least, once the election is over. Don't think it's been done since it was installed...
"...I know where the people I would like to form the next government are...they are on here blogging the truth as they see it!"
A government of bloggers. Hmmmm... ;)
Ijn theory it is being covered on German T.V as well. If so, and I can bloody find it, I will also be up all night.....so I am off to bed around 15:00 this afternoon. five hours "sleep" and then....
Keeping up with replies would also be good.
Thanks first to those who made the vote possible in the first place and spilled blood to keep it for us. They're spilling it still in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Blogging is indeed where the truth stands Julia, and thank you for doing it so thoroughly and so often these past 2 years since I discovered it for myself.
My feet are sore from 4 weeks' of doing it the old-fashioned way; pamphleteering for UKIP, God love 'em.
I'm putting my feet up and staying out of it till Saturday when the fun will REALLY start...
BBC provides a totally non patronising guide to voting here.
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