How you've created a vibrant campaign
Well, the law prevents my indulging in electoral issues today – but I just wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed our campaign season on Snowblog.
I’m particularly grateful to Adrian Clarke for remaining the grit in our oyster and staying the course – he never misses a trick. Jim Flavin, Margaret, Meg, Kristine, Annie, Patrick, Tom Wright, Richard-of-Nottingham, Paul Begley Saltaire Sam – I can’t name them all, but I read and enjoy the conversations and I hope they will continue.
Viv Lever I feel for you – I used to live in South Kilvington (Thirsk&Malton) before I was even old enough to vote. You, with your cobbled market place, steep hills, ruined abbeys, gorgeous country, and Old Peculiar, may yet hold the nation’s destiny in your hands. We have to wait for your decision until 27 May (a candidate died during the campaign).
I’ll strike up again on the politics tomorrow – we shall have much to rake over.
Today I’m musing about BP’s potentially hopeless effort to lower a 100 ton dome onto the oil gush 5,000 feet below sea level.
I’m looking at Greece. Oh and Goodluck Jonathan, whose Nigerian name alone intrigues as he takes over from the now actually dead President.
I’ll probably come up with something else before the day is done.
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There are 34 comments on this post
Thank you Jon.I really do like your blogs and am glad i found them .You might have said thorn in your sides.Perhaps that is why some called me a barrack room lawyer , when i was in the Navy , or i on a whim decided to try for Federation rep in the Police .Yet another decision that did me little good .I left a good solid job there to go selling .Yes i like to state my views hopefully accept others even if i try to persuade them they are wrong .We are all masters of our own destinies come what may .One day somehow we may change the world.
Thorn! More like a holly bush
re your last point – I’m counting on it, Adrian!
If the ale is called Old Peculiar, this election might well be called “new peculiar”.
Cheers Jon,
Way back I suggested you should could do a special report series on provincial Britain, similar to those you’ve done from overseas. Give it some thought once the dust settles from this.
Thanks for providing the platform, Jon, and for C4 News’s excellent coverage of the campaign. It’s a great team.
And to all my fellow bloggers, have a great election day. I’ll be thinking of you as we move into the morning hours and occasionally checking to see who is brave enough to blog a result.
Might spend part of today watching Yes Minister, just to remind myself that we never see the people who really run the country!
Crikey jon ! I never expected to you to say that you “…enjoy the conversations” about any of my posts. I thought you might find them a little too erm acerbic. My apologies, sometimes I just can’t help myself.
C4 news is still easily the best that there is (far superior to the BBCs output) and your blogs are interesting. But think of me as a QA administrator. I like your blogs but I’ll let you know when I think you’ve got it wrong.
Adrian, accepted.
I wasn’t named and didn’t expect to be. I have only been commenting Snowblog for six months and I rarely get into conversations. I just write what my heart tells me.
Congratulations on all your hard work Jon and I do genuinely believe you are the best out there.
With regards to BP and the worst oil spill in history, how can they expect to cover it up? There is only one way to prevent these ecological catastrophe’s occuring and that is to turn to alternative natural energy.
adzmundo The Venus Project & CND
adz i like your comments straight from the heart,and often agree with part of them , i just think my heart is in a different place .An opportunity for Saltaire to say i haven,t got one.
Of course you have a heart, Adrian. None of us can fully control which way our affections will follow, not even in politics.
OK, ladies and gents, a few minutes light relief taht incidentally backs up my thoughts on trident
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX_d_vMKswE&NR=1
Thanks for that, Sam; really enjoyed it and it’s started off my election night on a positive note (I needed it after learning on C4 News tonight that we all have Neanderthal genes lurking inside us!).
Thanks, Jon. Hoping to resume normal blogging later today after a few recent misses. I’d like to continue on the economic theme. Adrian: I haven’t forgotten the LVT issue, but re Guardian – don’t believe it ever was a Labour paper any more than was the Sun (latter has resumed normal service this election, batting for the Tories, as you know). G has always has a motley political crew of full-time journos (‘staffers’) as far as I can tell. More significantly: a parent friend and Labour supporter told me years ago that he wouldn’t touch the G because of its previous support for the Vietnam war.
Re ‘Goodluck Jonathan’: brought to mind the name of one of my pupils in Tanzania – Deogratias Bethlehem. You probably know this, Jon, but the slopes of ‘the mountain’ – Kilimanjaro – had been divided by the various colonialists/missionaries in to different denominations, and children were often named accordingly. (I was in the catholic wedge.)
With not a fag paper’s width between the three traditional parties on matters economic, wonder why Cameron/Osborne’s £200k tax-cut for the top 3000 UK citizens won’t be enough to see T-party come third – or may be it will!
Meg i refuse to talk politics on a day like today, cos you know i will disagree with you lol.i will gird my loins and renew my energy for future battles with you left wingers and lefter wingers in regards to Saltaire.:)
Meg, I too am surprised that so many people in this country are not outraged by such a blatant piece of redistribution to the wealthy, especially when most people are set to become a lot worse off.
I’m told it’s aspirational but how many of the most optimistic in society think they have a chance of reaching the top one per cent of wealth owners in this country?
It’s a symbol of everything I hate about the Conservative party and a reason I can’t envisage ever voting for them.
Oh, and don’t read my recent comment on Robert Peston’s blog – seems that you are the exception that proves the rule! Keep the good reports coming.
Thanks Jon, been a pleasure to participate – your blog has the feel of a chat over a pint and the exchange of opinions is rather more illuminating than the leaders debates!
Hope Nigel Farage and his pilot recover quickly. I probably disagree with every single thing he stands for, but it takes all sorts to make life interesting
Thanks, Jon, for the opportunity to sound off and join in on this forum. It’s the liveliest & most informative arena I’ve found.
I’d like to offer my apologies for all the provocative and ill-judged comments I’ve made on Margaret Brandreth Jones’s posts. They were totally puerile, and she was right to take offence. Sorry, mbj.
It has been refreshing and rewarding to see two diametrically opposed bloggers, Adrian Clarke and Saltaire Sam, behaving in the true spirit of debate. Respect, gentlemen! You’ve both earned it.
Now, having voted (only 6 of us in or near the polling station, sadly), it’s an afternoon nap, some cricket on the radio, then preparation for the results; but I’m afraid, Saltaire Sam, you won’t see a blog from me – there’d be ructions from the sleeping partner if I rolled into bed at some awful hour in the morning!
Thanks Jon you’re the best. I’ve enjoyed Adrian and Sam. But Sam, you’re going soft, Adrian has NOT got a heart. If we could only get him to take the pills he might see the light!
You guys are so screwed, you have no idea whats down the tracks and pretty soon too. The pound is about to go bye bye as it’s inflated into oblivion, north sea oil is drying up and the worst thing is that all three main political parties in the uk have dodged the truth about how bad things are, leaving the path clear for an eventual rise in facsism and radical ideologies. Hold on to your pants it’s gona be a bumpy ride down.
You’re mistaken – we DO know what’s coming, we’re worried sick privately, but we don’t make a song & dance about it. We’re British, after all …
So from work… to what has become routine .. blogging … Just been to our local school to vote and there was such a choice..phew…..
Whilst my job on the wards and recent past in GP practice, the NHS has become a tyrant in itself, but this is definitely not the case here ,despite the hotheads.
I’m a perennial lurker – not a poster – but it seems we’ve got a bunch who’ve carved out our own little niche here.
I suppose celebrating it is slightly overdue – I may never be informed enough to pick up on debates like the rest of you but I can always expect the comments to be more considered than on YouTube (and I can learn just as much from them!).
(a group photo, perhaps, before I see you all inevitably part ways one day?)
Why not take a chance and give everyone the benefit of your views?
Looking forward to the bloggers’ comments tonight. I have a day off tomorrow so am in for the long haul – if I can stay awake! Predictions, anyone? I’m expecting a hung parliament (in contradistinction to ‘hanged’ – I’m not feeling that extreme yet!).
Thank you Jon & C4 team. U lot have my utmost gratitude and respect.
I know I can be controversial, blunt & brash but, that’s just the way I am. I notice Adz is similar. Perhaps that’s why we didn’t get a mention!!
To all the bloggers, get your verbla boxing gloves at the ready if you wanna challenge!
I wonder how many people are staying up late for the results or, to see the faces of losers an excuses they make?! I wonder how significant the death of the UKIP candidate for Thirsk & Malton will be if it’s a close call? 27th May might be a interesting day?!
Oh, I must say, I always did wonder if Jon gets the time to read the bloggers comments. It’s great to know that he does. I hope the others do too.
11.30 and already we seem to have our election process in turmoil with people being turned away and not allowed to vote.
Can you imagine what would have been said if that happened in Afghanistan, Zimbabwe or anywhere else in the world?
I would imagine the markets will get really twitched if the outcome of the election depends not on horse trading but on legal challenges
Economic crisis! What economic crisis? The BBC seems to still be able to pour a lot of wine down the necks of B-list celebs.
I see the markets are opening early, so they can gamble on the election, no doubt hoping to make a quick buck by betting against our interests
At 1.30 it looks as though we might be governed by a party of Southern England
It’s nearly 4am and all the parties are looking miserable and we haven’t had a ‘Portillo moment’ unless you count Lembik Opik.
I’m disappointed that the lib dem ‘surge’ doesn’t seem to have happened but I will be very interested to see the final share of the vote because I suspect it might again show that the system is a stitch up that doesn’t reflect the popular vote.
One of the least exciting election nights I can remember. I’m off to bed.
We have recently lunched a campaign for Kiana Firouz, an Iranian Lesbian,whose application was turned down by the home office. she has also played a role in a movie called ‘cul-de-sac’ as herself in support of Gay rights in Iran
the premiere screening is on 20th of May in Coronet cinema Notting Hill Gate London.