[…] A much-reduced Labour majority leaves me feeling conflicted. On the one hand, thanks to the fact that my British political brain lives in a permanent 1990, I’m honestly wowed by a third Labour term. This puts the party on an equal footing with the Tories’ record, and Blair on an equal footing with Thatcher (in oh so many ways, but let’s not go there for now). And like Thatcher, he’ll probably get booted out in the middle of his third term. Except there’s already an annointed successor, Gordon Brown. On the other hand, Blair blew it with the war and I wish he’d lost. BBC election coverage is a wonderful thing. There is, of course, the Swingometer. No, this isn’t a device measuring 1970s sexual funkiness. It’s a large - and increasingly computerized - needle that the BBC has been using for decades to display the swing for or against a given party. It’s a glorious two-party relic, but it’s always nice to see how they’ve zazzed it up with nifty graphics. However, the real highlight of the evening in terms of animation was the illustration of how far the three major party leaders would need to go in order to become Prime Minister. This was accomplished with a virtual Downing Street, and computer animated versions of each leader that looked exactly like characters from Grand Theft Auto. I kept expecting Michael Howard to run over a hooker. […]
July 8th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
[…] A much-reduced Labour majority leaves me feeling conflicted. On the one hand, thanks to the fact that my British political brain lives in a permanent 1990, I’m honestly wowed by a third Labour term. This puts the party on an equal footing with the Tories’ record, and Blair on an equal footing with Thatcher (in oh so many ways, but let’s not go there for now). And like Thatcher, he’ll probably get booted out in the middle of his third term. Except there’s already an annointed successor, Gordon Brown. On the other hand, Blair blew it with the war and I wish he’d lost. BBC election coverage is a wonderful thing. There is, of course, the Swingometer. No, this isn’t a device measuring 1970s sexual funkiness. It’s a large - and increasingly computerized - needle that the BBC has been using for decades to display the swing for or against a given party. It’s a glorious two-party relic, but it’s always nice to see how they’ve zazzed it up with nifty graphics. However, the real highlight of the evening in terms of animation was the illustration of how far the three major party leaders would need to go in order to become Prime Minister. This was accomplished with a virtual Downing Street, and computer animated versions of each leader that looked exactly like characters from Grand Theft Auto. I kept expecting Michael Howard to run over a hooker. […]