Posted by Sari
UK Election
The system might be (and is) totally antiquated and produce questionable results, but you can’t deny that the process itself is great fun. Firstly there is BBC’s graphics. There is Peter Snow with his jolly orange shirt gallivanting around an empty space which is filled for the viewer with all sorts of funky graphics. Who cares about red states and blue states or a boring bar graph about how SDP is gainig a seat and Center Party loosing two, when you can have three-way battlelines with tiny little chess-figures representing vulnerable seats, not to mention the swingometer.
Even more fun are the parties. And I don’t mean Labour, Conservatives, Liberals or even SNP, but parties like Church of Militant Elvis Party, who apparently believe that Evis is alive and living somewhere in Arabia as a sheikh. Or New Millennium Bean Party. And of course there is the classic, late Screaming Lord Sutch’s Official Monster Raving Looney Party whose candidates this year include Jedediah Headbanger, R.U. Seerius and Boney Moroney. Because of the ancient system the results of a particular seat are announced while all the candidates stand in line on a stage. Both Monty Python and Blackadder have spoofed this ritual successfully, but the unreal thing is that reality does not really differ from the comedy.
Eating Muffins 