General election blog roundup 25 - D-Day
Up now, courtesy of yours truly. And as such, replicated here:
It's all over bar the count, re-counts, legal disputes over postal votes (and bad luck to reader Michelle Gray whose postal vote got, erm... lost in the post), and that little matter of South Staffordshire, but after tonight we can all, finally, stop spouting quite so much nonsense about this bloody election. (Heh... Sorry, Jarndyce, old bean...)
First up, a plug - some of us General Election bloggers and a bunch of others from around the UK blogland have started a brand spanking new group effort, which we're hoping will be a showcase for some of the best (loosely) political writing on the web. It is The Sharpener, and we hope to see you there.
Right, pluggage out the way, on with the roundup.
The lovely chap that is Justin "Chicken Yoghurt" McKeating has created a handy resource for those of you planning to spend your election night with us bloggers: a spiffy little guide to where all the action is, as does the last post in this very blog. Something else which should prove useful is the UK Political Blog Feeds site. Always handy, and tonight doubly so.
Perfect also has some pointers to where the action is going to be blog-wise, while qwqhlm (who also plans to liveblog) has compiled an useful list of Labour marginals to watch out for if, like us sad politics geeks, you plan to be up all night. Judging by some of the early rumours, there could be a fair few more Labour marginals after tonight - we can but hope, eh? qwqhlm's mate Chris also has some election I-Spy, which could make for a nice drinking game...
Tonight could be interesting. This election has brought out some top-notch posts from bloggers - like this effort, Choose Labour, from the Honourable Fiend and this from Blood and Treasure - it was included in the roundup yesterday, but is so good it deserves to be included again (and is now in a new home to boot...) Even some of the candidates have come up with some quality stuff...
The near-inevitable Labour victory is also causing some "what happens next speculation" even before the polls have closed, with pondering Where next for the Right? and your roundupmonkey for tonight desperately trying to start up a campaign for electoral reform, even though some other people got there first and with a far better explanation than mine of why. Others are making worrying predictions that things most certainly CAN'T only get better, and that we could all end up royally screwed in the coming third Labour term.
Was it the anxiety election for you, as Matt Sellers reckons, or just so dull even the bombs were boring? (That last lot, a blog from the new London newspaper The London Line, will also be liveblogging, by the by)
Either way, Robin Grant of Perfect also has some advice for what us mere voters should be doing next: heading to Ivotedforyoubecause.com to register our reasoning and let those Westminster bastards know how pissed off we all are. My ballot paper, much like my fellow electionblogger Ken Owen's, would have got a hefty essay if they asked us to justify our votes on there as well, I can tell you...
And finally, Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads and Backing Blair fame notes a last irony...
OK, that's it. We'll probably be doing some post-match analysis here over the next few days, so any more links and such like, keep 'em coming in for now. Technically the general election isn't over until the delayed South Staffordshire vote takes place in a month or more, but as I type, polls close in half an hour. I hope you voted wisely, and that some of the stuff on this blog helped you make a more informed choice.
Democracy eh? It's great, innit?
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