General Election - 4th July 2024

He he. Really made me laugh the ‘uphill both ways’ oh you’re the lucky one line

This Tory government having been in 14 years has not done a lot of policies which change things. Regardless of what we all thought of Maggie and Tony Blair they did some distinct policies and left their legacy. We had 7 years of minority or coalition government, a couple with a wafer thin Tory majority. When they got a working majority we had the pandemic then 3 PMs in 3 months.

Eishi looks as if he has called quits or feels he would not have got his bills through in the 6 months he had left. There were a large number of Tory MPs who had decided to stand down so they could easily have gone rogue on how they voted with no fear of reprisals.

Nearly 28 years in this country - always worked, paid tax and NI, haven't claimed benefits, abide by the laws of the UK, contributed to economy and community.

And I'm not allowed to vote in general elections.

It still doesn't sit quite right with me.

When people qualify for indefinite leave to remain, they should be allowed to vote.

The right to vote being limited to citizens is not an unreasonable position for any nation to take.

And citizens of Ireland even though the right is not reciprocated.

I can understand it with the Commonwealth especially if they are people who relocated here as we had all that scandal with the Windrush generation being threatened with deportation.

We have certainly pussyfooted far too much as far as Eire is concerned. People from there should have no right to vote however paly Mr Blair and Corbyn were/are to the provisionals.

It is rude to change tickets so they can move the press night, but I can understand why they think the media coverage will get lost in election coverage.

I don't know what time the embargo on reviews would end, but assuming the exit poll results are announced at 10pm then that is what people will be talking about for the next few hours, and the next day people will be talking about the actual results. If any big name Tories don't step down before the election we can expect a number of Portillo moments to gossip about.

Meanwhile, actual election day is a strange one for the media, with very strict rules on what can be said that could tenuously be considered political. It's a great time for what might otherwise be considered filler stories.

Whether or not that really matters to people who buy theatre tickets is another thing. Most people who might be interested will look up reviews on the internet. But I do have sympathy with the PR people.

The press night is moving TO 3rd July from 4th. The person who has tickets on 3rd July is being moved as a result.

There are rules on what can be said to ensure balance get increasingly strict as the election approaches. It's absolutely against the rules to have any opinion polls on the day of the election itself, and there will be people with stop-watches to ensure coverage of leader visits to polling stations are given equal weight. They try to avoid it, but if they mention one candidate in any constituency they have to mention them all, which is a pain for them, and tedious for us. 

The Dogs at Polling Stations phenomenon began as a result. The BBC wanted to cover the existence of the election, but doing anything that linked to a particular party of candidate was a massive headache, so they started featuring coverage of dogs (without rosettes) at polling stations.

Then 10 O'Clock hits, and there will be endless discussion of the exit polls, followed by coverage of school kids running into sports halls with ballot boxes, and promises of announcements coming soon, returning officers padding their part, then John Curtice looking smug about his predictions being supernaturally accurate.

Sir John Curtice is always an interesting listen and tends to have a good handle on what will happen IMO.

I wonder if any party would complain if their leader got a bit less coverage than another. The full list of candidates is often shown on screen or read out by the newsreader/reporter at any by elections. But I don't know if they have to do that for every seat they visit in a general election once the candidates are confirmed.

Diane Abbott whilst I'm not fan of personally or her politics to put it politely I can appreciate that she is probably a very good constituency MP who has been in place for 37 years and has a big personal following. So if she does do what Jeremy Corbyn will do and stand as an independent she will get a significant personal vote and I'd guess Galloway's party wouldn't stand against her.

Diane with her length of service as an MP and the lack of bame people in the House of Lords would be a no brainer choice to be offered a seat in there IMO. But whether with her political viewpoint she'd accept one I don't know.

At 70, I wonder if actually it's time for Diane Abbott to stand down and enjoy retirement.

Corbyn will probably be the MP of Islington North until he literally drops dead.

Personally I would put an upper limit on the ages of those seeking to stand as MPs.

70 at the date of the election is as old as I would set it. That way we wouldn't have any MPs over the age of 75.

Similarly I would have an upper age limit for peers. 80 would not be unreasonable there. After that point they would retain their titles but lose voting rights.

We have lower limits so upper limits are not unfair.