Friday, May 05, 2006

Election 2006



As the results trickle in from English council elections, it seems that the role of technology has broken free from the simple 'swingometer' from days of old.

In today's complex information age, users can track results in real-time on the BBC's website. Wannabe Jon Snows (now Jeremy Vines) can even fiddle with figures using fancy computer graphics and remember folks, It's still just a bit of fun!

It seems that even the humble 'blog' has burst on the scene too. Both this blog and that of the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson have had a part to play. People have been able to comment in real time to Nick who has been keeping an eye on his blog in the studio.

He's keeping an eye on the studio guests too. He's openly admitting that he's grilling John Reid as to any cabinet re-shuffle although Mr Reid is choosing not to comment 'off piste' really. Couple that with technical troubles or selective hearing along with banana's and Mars bars to keep the energy up and its just another election night really!

Anyway here's my contribution which Nick has kindly published on his blog... Maybe he'll leave a comment on this one?



***STOP PRESS***

Nicks blog now holds much more importance. It seems that the studio (along with most of Westminster) has been hit by some kind of power cut! He's dictating his blog entries over a phone!

Basically the telly went funny and that was that!


At 3.30am, its starting to look bad for the BBC's coverage. Unless we can get 'Dimbers & Co' over towards the Pub (the OB location still has power) its looking like there may be a few similarities between both the government and the BBC. Its looking like a bad night for both with most people kept in the dark.

... And I thought the plug was going to be pulled on Tony Blair!

Ps. It looks like its us lot keeping the show on the road, here's another fellow blogger who's keeping an eye on things

http://www.hoscik.com/

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

He may not but I will. Hope to read some more posts tonight.

Paul Hurst said...

Stephen, there's lots of posts to be read on Nick blog and I don't think I'm the only one who's finding this really interesting indeed.

Its great being able to get live updates from the political ED but also picking up on some of the comments from viewers too.

Enjoy the show!

Paul Hurst said...

****UPDATE*****

Looks like there's been a few dead heats! In those cases, the tied candidates draw lots which surely isn't really that fair...

... They should have an arm wrestle

Anonymous said...

As you say Paul it's very interesting to see the comments from so many other viewers - Nick's blog is a cheap but really effective development.

Paul Hurst said...

Martin :-)

you are quite correct. It is cheap but as we can see at the moment, it can run off batteries!

TV studio's obviously cannot...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this, it made an excellent read along with Nicks comments and the BBC's programme.

Mike