I mentioned earlier that the Lib Dems were not having fun in South-East London, well I've just heard that in some parts they are seriously worried because they're barely holding on to third place.
I've also just had a conversation with someone else which follows neatly on from my last post about why the count wasn't started until this morning. They said that it is now becoming painfully slow in the count centre.
Whether that means they just don't have enough machines, or because there are too many ballots that cannot be electronically read I don't know. There does though seem to have been some sort of breakdown in the counting systems as we should really have been getting some hard results by now.
The person I spoke to said that if he gets out of there by midnight he will be very surprised.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Why did the count start this morning?
Ben Brogan has noted it just before I was going to, but I have just come off the phone to someone at one of the London counts and it is looking very likely that we're going to have wait quite some time more than the original prediction of an 8pm result.
The question this raises for me is that, given there is electronic voting, why on earth did the count not start at 11pm last night? So far the count has been going for about nine hours. That is one hour less than the ten hours that were wasted doing nothing between 10pm last night and 8am this morning.
The question this raises for me is that, given there is electronic voting, why on earth did the count not start at 11pm last night? So far the count has been going for about nine hours. That is one hour less than the ten hours that were wasted doing nothing between 10pm last night and 8am this morning.
Brain Paddick is in the building!
Email just in that Brian Paddick has entered the Excel count centre and looks "resigned". Meanwhile, have also just heard that Iain Dale will be doing the newspaper review for half a hour tonight with Yasmin Alibi Brown on Sky News. That will be amusing to watch to see the sour look on her face.
The Fink Blog Round-Up
Danny Finkelstein over at the Times Comment Central has an excellent post that is being updated throughout the day by the Comment Central team and his colleague Alice Fishburn. It is linking to all the blogging that is going on about the London election count. Political blogging about the political blogging as it were. Great idea.
Live Blog VIII: BNP think its a fix!
Have just received word from the count that BNP members are openly discussing their concerns that the ballots have all been deliberately doctored to stop them receiving any votes. Reality check time. You're not receiving votes because you're a bunch of white power socialist dickheads that are led by a guy with a gammy eye who looks a bit odd.
Thinking about it though, that's mildly amusing because if you just dropped the "racism" bit you could join the Labour Party and then you'd receive votes and on today's performance you'd still be in a similar position with your conspiracy theory and leader!
Thinking about it though, that's mildly amusing because if you just dropped the "racism" bit you could join the Labour Party and then you'd receive votes and on today's performance you'd still be in a similar position with your conspiracy theory and leader!
Billy No-Mates changed his name?
Do we think he's single, and has no family and no friends?
Source: Crewe Herald
Update 15:56: All change! He now has friends!
Source: Crewe HeraldUpdate 15:56: All change! He now has friends!
Live Blog VII: Some news from the Excel count
According to Sky News, the turnout for London was 45%. I don't know where they have got that figure of course, but as Iain has noted on his live blog post, it is "good for the Tories because it means that turnout in inner London must have been much lower than in the outer Tory boroughs."
Have just been speaking to someone at the count at Excel and Iain's point may hold true. According to my source, the City and East GLA seat, which Labour is leading by about 65 to 35, is also the count that is farthest ahead.
The seat has apparently managed to count almost 50% of the vote so far, whilst the other seats being counted at Excel - that's the outer-boroughs - are only on the 38% mark. This would suggest that the turnout in the inner-borough of City and East is significantly lower than the others.
The real difficulty with the count though, and figuring out the actual figures is that there are only screens showing bar charts for the actual results. This means that you know who is "winning" but have to estimate by what margin. Given this the Lib Dems are getting confused and assuming that they're much closer than it looks because the graphs must be faked.
Speaking of the Lib Dems, here's some rather amusing news from the Greenwich and Lewisham count for the London List member. They're being beaten by the Greens.
Have just been speaking to someone at the count at Excel and Iain's point may hold true. According to my source, the City and East GLA seat, which Labour is leading by about 65 to 35, is also the count that is farthest ahead.
The seat has apparently managed to count almost 50% of the vote so far, whilst the other seats being counted at Excel - that's the outer-boroughs - are only on the 38% mark. This would suggest that the turnout in the inner-borough of City and East is significantly lower than the others.
The real difficulty with the count though, and figuring out the actual figures is that there are only screens showing bar charts for the actual results. This means that you know who is "winning" but have to estimate by what margin. Given this the Lib Dems are getting confused and assuming that they're much closer than it looks because the graphs must be faked.
Speaking of the Lib Dems, here's some rather amusing news from the Greenwich and Lewisham count for the London List member. They're being beaten by the Greens.
There's a conspiracy!!!
A strange comment appeared ALL IN CAPS this morning on the last post that said:mckenzie said...I may be widely speculating but could this mean that Winston Mackenzie, the independent Mayoral candidate that can't decide what party to be in, might not be doing so well and is looking for an explanation?
40% OF BALLOT BOXES BROKEN INTO OVERNIGHT IN LONDON. WHAT A HUGE DEMOCRATIC VICTORY.
IF THIS IS WHAT YOU ALL WANT THEN GOOD LUCK.
Winston, I need to know! Was that you that left that comment?
Labour to be pushed into third?
BBC are reporting projections of 24% Labour, 44% Conservative and 25% Liberal Democrat. Brown has (potentially) been pushed into third. Blair must be highly amused!
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