OK. In just under 24 hours’ time it all begins; a night in with Peter Snow, David Dimbleby and plenty of coffee. I can’t find anyone else to stay up all night with, so it looks like I’ll be spending it with you, dear reader.
This ought to be fun; my past two elections have been subject to recollection and nostalgia, but this one will be blogged in real-time, so if I go into sleep-deprived hallucinations, you’ll hear about them first. I’ll be blogging throughout the night, I might take the odd snap or two to add to Flickr for the full visual experience. And you’re welcome to get in touch with me as well, either by email (at the usual address) or MSN (at 
). Anyone know of an IRC channel anywhere?
Right, a quick bit of geekery rustled up while watching Dr Tatiana. It’s the list of the 30 most marginal Labour seats, along with the expected declaration time (from here) – from these hopefully we can work out whether Tony will have a good night, or have a ‘mare. Enjoy:
| Constituency | Majority | % | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dumfries & Galloway | 141 | 0.28 | 0300 |
| Dorset South | 153 | 0.34 | 0400 |
| Braintree | 358 | 0.71 | 0330 |
| Monmouth | 384 | 0.86 | 0200 |
| Lancaster & Wyre | 481 | 0.92 | 0430 |
| Kettering | 665 | 1.24 | 0430 |
| Dundee East | 496 | 1.29 | 0130 |
| Northampton South | 885 | 1.73 | 0200 |
| Ochil & South Perthshire | 821 | 1.83 | 0230 |
| Cardiff Central | 659 | 1.89 | 0200 |
| Ynys Mon | 800 | 2.35 | 0100 |
| Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey | 1134 | 2.65 | 0230 |
| Welwyn Hatfield | 1196 | 2.79 | 0130 |
| Shipley | 1428 | 3.10 | 0130 |
| Clwyd West | 1115 | 3.22 | 0230 |
| Birmingham Sparkbrook & Small Heath | 1240 | 3.38 | 0230 |
| Bexleyheath & Crayford | 1472 | 3.65 | 0300 |
| Milton Keynes North East | 1829 | 3.88 | 0300 |
| Hornchurch | 1482 | 4.17 | 0200 |
| Selby | 2138 | 4.25 | 0300 |
| Hammersmith & Fulham | 2015 | 4.51 | 0300 |
| Thanet South | 1792 | 4.54 | 0045 |
| Forest of Dean | 2049 | 4.59 | 0430 |
| Wellingborough | 2355 | 4.62 | 0300 |
| Ilford North | 2115 | 5.26 | 0100 |
| Rugby & Kenilworth | 2877 | 5.35 | 0400 |
| Gillingham | 2272 | 5.38 | 0300 |
| Harwich | 2596 | 5.40 | 0200 |
| Oldham East & Saddleworth | 2726 | 6.00 | 0100 |
| Enfield North | 2291 | 6.01 | 0300 |
One last thing – I’ll be closing the election sweepstake round about 10pm tomorrow night so this is a last call to place your bets, if you haven’t already…
Nick Barlow and some of the regulars from the Election 2005 blog are running one. See this post.
Er… ‘one’ being an IRC channel. Obviously. Blimey, is that the time?
Cheers Phil. See you there tomorrow…
It’s a long way from standing around in a council house in the South of England in the 80s, with my two grandads, both of whom were Labour councillors (and Mayor, don’t you know), watching candidates dash in and out as results were called. Still, by 6am I’m sure I’ll be as coherent and dribbly as they are. BTW, thanks for some superb linkage during a slog of a campaign Chris. Brightens it up no end. Must bed now, see you on the other side.