Andrew Roberts: General Election 2010
[Andrew Roberts is a British journalist and historian.]
This general election campaign was one of the most hard-fought in post-war history, even though its results seem eerily inconclusive. It was not just the Prime Minister who bit his nails as the four weeks progressed – so did the whole nation, as the Liberal Democrats seemed at one point to be genuinely breaking the mould of British politics, but then slipped back to lose seats overall. The way the electorate looked closely at Liberal Democrat policies, considered them, and then rejected them, is a sign that campaigns really can work.
The increase in turnout since the last election – 61 per cent in 2005, and 65 per cent on Thursday – is indicative of the interest the campaign rekindled in a public that was comprehensively turned off politics last year by the expenses scandal. The closeness of the expected result reminded the electorate that their votes really did count, and that the phrase “exercise our democratic right” was more than mere words. Britons acted responsibly, rather than in the childish manner many commentators feared, and did not stay at home because “all politicians are as bad as each other”.
This extraordinary result, our first hung parliament for more than a third of a century, was always the most likely outcome judging by polling during the campaign, yet even in 1974 there was not so big a gap between the largest party and the number of seats necessary for a majority.
Aside from the result it has thrown up, the general election campaign of 2010 will be remembered as the one in which British politics changed fundamentally. The party leaders debated on television for the first time; blogging, tweeting and social networking sites began to take the place of old-style doorstep politics, while modern, ultra-sophisticated polling on the American model allowed a shift of huge swathes of opinion in ways hitherto unimaginable. On some occasions – notably 1945, 1970, 1974 and 1992 – the polling organisations have got the election results completely wrong, yet on Thursday night the BBC exit poll at 10pm correctly forecast the number of Tory seats to within one or two.
Historically, elections are often decided well before the campaign even begins, for all that the political pundits talk up the impact of the four or five weeks in the run-up to polling day. Usually, a general impression has already been created, which the campaigns tend merely to solidify.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
This general election campaign was one of the most hard-fought in post-war history, even though its results seem eerily inconclusive. It was not just the Prime Minister who bit his nails as the four weeks progressed – so did the whole nation, as the Liberal Democrats seemed at one point to be genuinely breaking the mould of British politics, but then slipped back to lose seats overall. The way the electorate looked closely at Liberal Democrat policies, considered them, and then rejected them, is a sign that campaigns really can work.
The increase in turnout since the last election – 61 per cent in 2005, and 65 per cent on Thursday – is indicative of the interest the campaign rekindled in a public that was comprehensively turned off politics last year by the expenses scandal. The closeness of the expected result reminded the electorate that their votes really did count, and that the phrase “exercise our democratic right” was more than mere words. Britons acted responsibly, rather than in the childish manner many commentators feared, and did not stay at home because “all politicians are as bad as each other”.
This extraordinary result, our first hung parliament for more than a third of a century, was always the most likely outcome judging by polling during the campaign, yet even in 1974 there was not so big a gap between the largest party and the number of seats necessary for a majority.
Aside from the result it has thrown up, the general election campaign of 2010 will be remembered as the one in which British politics changed fundamentally. The party leaders debated on television for the first time; blogging, tweeting and social networking sites began to take the place of old-style doorstep politics, while modern, ultra-sophisticated polling on the American model allowed a shift of huge swathes of opinion in ways hitherto unimaginable. On some occasions – notably 1945, 1970, 1974 and 1992 – the polling organisations have got the election results completely wrong, yet on Thursday night the BBC exit poll at 10pm correctly forecast the number of Tory seats to within one or two.
Historically, elections are often decided well before the campaign even begins, for all that the political pundits talk up the impact of the four or five weeks in the run-up to polling day. Usually, a general impression has already been created, which the campaigns tend merely to solidify.