Choices
*Note. Firstly I’m glad to say I’ve got the blogging buzz back at the moment, so expect to see a bit more activity around here. However, for the next few weeks it’s very likely I will be talking about Politics a lot, seeing as it’s all I can think or talk about at the moment. So if that’s not your thing, then apologies. I know at least one American reader who will doubtless be utterly uninterested in the minutiae of British politics, so sorry Kerri. That said, on with the show.
Come next Thursday I am going to have to make a very hard decision. As millions of people put their ballots in the box and the nation waits expectantly for the result of the most closely fought election my generation has ever seen, I am personally being forced to choose. A choice, between tried, tested and reliable, or the shiny, the new, the unknown. A choice between cold hard truths, and the promise of a new way of doing things.
I am not talking, of course, about the choice between parties. No, for me that ship set sail long ago. No, I am talking about the choice of coverage come election night. I have already booked the next day off work, so that no matter how long the result takes I can stay up without fear of falling asleep at my desk the next day. I do this for every election (and the American ones too) because I am a geek, and I love watching the pundits clamouring to fill the time before the results come in, to see them desperately trying to spin results as they happen, to get reaction, and for the little moments that really shape your understanding of our political system. Or simply those moments that make you laugh, or punch the air (watching Michael Portillo’s face as he lost his seat ticked both of those boxes for me) can easily keep me sustained for an entire evening, and often right up until the morning as well.
For my money, there is nobody better at this sort of thing than the BBC. With the trusty old Beeb you get the highest grade of punditry as well as the most knowledgeable presenters. But you also get a sense that they understand that this should be entertainment, that it’s live, and that whatever happens will happen. Until recently it was a given that I was going to spend next Thursday in the company of the Beeb. The good old trusty Beeb. But now we have a new choice. A usurper, if you will, in the battle for my attention come election night. Channel 4′s ‘alternative election night.’
This promises to be a slightly more irreverent take on the unfolding election results, hosted by a mix of the good (Charlie Brooker, David Mitchell), the bad (Jimmy Carr) and the ugly (Jimmy Carr). Oh, and the lovely Lauren Laverne. Several of these ingredients give me hope, especially the presence of Brooker, who has long been my favourite person on telly. Certainly there is potential there for it to be a funny but still intelligent enough look at the night, but on the other hand, these are presenters who by and large don’t have a lot of experience with live telly, so there is the very real possibility that it will all go immensely tits up. The description on the Channel 4′s website bills it as ‘a night full of satire and sass, minus the staid political swing-o-meters.’ But I like the swing-o-meter. I am torn between wanting to be entertained, and wanting to be informed.
The Channel 4 show runs from 9pm until one in the morning. The BBC’s coverage doesn’t start on BBC1 proper until 9.55 (although BBC News will obviously be running with the election throughout the day) so I imagine that I will give the challenger 55 minutes to sell itself to me, at which point I think that the BBC may well win out. The truth is that as much as I have enjoyed the satire and humour that has permeated this election more than any other in my lifetime, I also take it very seriously, and I think come the night itself, I want to watch coverage that takes it seriously as well.
*Second note. I’m going to try and post this using my phone, as I have learnt my lesson about blogging from a work computer, and I am not going to be able to get it up until tomorrow otherwise. If this works, it will make me a happy man. If it doesn’t, well then I guess I will remove this note and post it tomorrow instead. So if you are reading the note then it worked. If you are not, well then you will never know about it.
*Third note. The phone thing didn’t work. I hate the world.
Oh, but I am interested! Can’t claim to understand a bit of it, but interested? Yes.
And, since I noticed your reference to it in your post, if you’re ever doing one of those games where you have to come up with 10 body parts that are only three letters long? ‘Tit’ doesn’t count.
I remember Jonic telling me you guys were staying up all night watching our Presidential election. Still odd for me to think of that.
However, I did ask him something about your voting process the other day, and I think he had to verify his answer with you before he told me. 
Ahh, he never mentioned that was for you! Well I am glad that you don’t mind, it just gives me the justification to bore the crap out of everyone else.
If there’s anything I’m good for, it’s justifying crap.