Online News Association UK - 2010 election night blog
Chaos, Brand Politics and Random Thoughts
Well the anticipation has given way to sober deflation and greyness. A
sense of inevitability has descended. This was always going to happen
despite my own feeling that maybe, just maybe we might have had a
clear decisive winner. The feeling in the office of the publisher in which I am sat is that
is that we will have to do this again in October. Isn't that an
indictment of our politicians that no one believes that, despite the
clear message given them, politicians will actually work together for
the common good? It's that simple thought that is for me the biggest
argument for electoral process change. The system we have is basically the same as when it emerged two
hundred years ago. Of course there have been tweaks along the way but
the same basic concept that worked for the 18th century political
landscape is expected to work for the era of space exploration,
distributed instant communications, nano technology and bio-genetic
engineering. That a system that was partly invented when some
constituencies only had a handful of eligible voters should still
continue when we have the technology to enable full granular
participation in democracy irrespective of time or place is somewhat
surprising. There is now nothing to prevent the general public being offered the
chance to regularly cast votes on key issues should they wish.
Organisation of elections could be changed for the better and easily.
We could get rid of this archaic need to go to a particular local
polling station. People work and live much longer distances away now
and there is no need for I, working in London, to have to rush home to
vote. Simple things such as putting polling stations at railway
stations are now possible and addressing these simple issues would be
a start but the key point here is how to restore value back to “Brand
Politics”. The first thing that we as voters should expect from this
new hung parliament is that politicians of all backgrounds recognise a
simple truth that if 30% of the population vote in one way then they
ought to, in all fairness, have 30% of the representation. How can
that be argued against? Maybe, just maybe, the politicians will have learned from the expenses
scandal and realise that, party politics or not, we have asked them to
work together for our benefit; that destabilizing each other to force
another election is not what anyone wants. Given the British system
this seems unlikely but as they start to fight, the erosion of the
brand that is UK politics will continue. The same technological shifts
that could enable people to take part more easily are also allowing
information to spread more easily in a way that could radically
undermine the system. The expenses scandal proved that one small shiny
plastic disc could destabilize an entire system. The brand essence of
UK politics is wounded and the unfolding information age could kill
it. The new society is characterised by a shift from mass to niche; from
top-down, command and control to Chaotic. In terms of political
effects we see this in that fact that UK is breaking up. Regional
devolution is being talked about and single issues politics is
emerging as a force for change. We can now organise and communicate
in ways undreamed of in the past. Ultimately things will only change for the better once politicians
recognise that the population is better educated and better informed
than they have ever been in history and that, despite clumsy attempts
to control and restrict learning from the centre, the information cat
is well and truly out of the bag. As someone who works with often
large scale chaotic social media based communications systems I know
that trying to control them is inherently doomed to failure. "Brand Politics" is in a desperate state. It needs reinvigorating. The
case for change is everywhere. Incumbents who have been served well by
our 200 year old system talk of change but will not act in any
significant way. There’s a very real danger that further erosion of
“Brand Politics” will, in the long term, result in large swathes of
people beginning to self organise and render politicians irrelevant
and create massive division. A classic political response to such
development may well be more attempts to apply central control of
which we should beware but they are the ones who are ultimately
leading the charge to their own irrelevancy like some sort of
political "Unenlightened Brigade". Of course they may well pull together and work for the good of
everyone. I sincerely hope their actions make this post a piece of
irrelevant verbiage but I like most people don’t really believe that
will happen. In the end I do not want another election in October. I
want sensible well run government that listens and includes us. Is
that too hard to give us?
Richard Adams twitter @dickyadams
sense of inevitability has descended. This was always going to happen
despite my own feeling that maybe, just maybe we might have had a
clear decisive winner. The feeling in the office of the publisher in which I am sat is that
is that we will have to do this again in October. Isn't that an
indictment of our politicians that no one believes that, despite the
clear message given them, politicians will actually work together for
the common good? It's that simple thought that is for me the biggest
argument for electoral process change. The system we have is basically the same as when it emerged two
hundred years ago. Of course there have been tweaks along the way but
the same basic concept that worked for the 18th century political
landscape is expected to work for the era of space exploration,
distributed instant communications, nano technology and bio-genetic
engineering. That a system that was partly invented when some
constituencies only had a handful of eligible voters should still
continue when we have the technology to enable full granular
participation in democracy irrespective of time or place is somewhat
surprising. There is now nothing to prevent the general public being offered the
chance to regularly cast votes on key issues should they wish.
Organisation of elections could be changed for the better and easily.
We could get rid of this archaic need to go to a particular local
polling station. People work and live much longer distances away now
and there is no need for I, working in London, to have to rush home to
vote. Simple things such as putting polling stations at railway
stations are now possible and addressing these simple issues would be
a start but the key point here is how to restore value back to “Brand
Politics”. The first thing that we as voters should expect from this
new hung parliament is that politicians of all backgrounds recognise a
simple truth that if 30% of the population vote in one way then they
ought to, in all fairness, have 30% of the representation. How can
that be argued against? Maybe, just maybe, the politicians will have learned from the expenses
scandal and realise that, party politics or not, we have asked them to
work together for our benefit; that destabilizing each other to force
another election is not what anyone wants. Given the British system
this seems unlikely but as they start to fight, the erosion of the
brand that is UK politics will continue. The same technological shifts
that could enable people to take part more easily are also allowing
information to spread more easily in a way that could radically
undermine the system. The expenses scandal proved that one small shiny
plastic disc could destabilize an entire system. The brand essence of
UK politics is wounded and the unfolding information age could kill
it. The new society is characterised by a shift from mass to niche; from
top-down, command and control to Chaotic. In terms of political
effects we see this in that fact that UK is breaking up. Regional
devolution is being talked about and single issues politics is
emerging as a force for change. We can now organise and communicate
in ways undreamed of in the past. Ultimately things will only change for the better once politicians
recognise that the population is better educated and better informed
than they have ever been in history and that, despite clumsy attempts
to control and restrict learning from the centre, the information cat
is well and truly out of the bag. As someone who works with often
large scale chaotic social media based communications systems I know
that trying to control them is inherently doomed to failure. "Brand Politics" is in a desperate state. It needs reinvigorating. The
case for change is everywhere. Incumbents who have been served well by
our 200 year old system talk of change but will not act in any
significant way. There’s a very real danger that further erosion of
“Brand Politics” will, in the long term, result in large swathes of
people beginning to self organise and render politicians irrelevant
and create massive division. A classic political response to such
development may well be more attempts to apply central control of
which we should beware but they are the ones who are ultimately
leading the charge to their own irrelevancy like some sort of
political "Unenlightened Brigade". Of course they may well pull together and work for the good of
everyone. I sincerely hope their actions make this post a piece of
irrelevant verbiage but I like most people don’t really believe that
will happen. In the end I do not want another election in October. I
want sensible well run government that listens and includes us. Is
that too hard to give us?
Richard Adams twitter @dickyadams
Caroline Lucas ftw #hubge2010
morning all, Brighton delivers first Green MP in the form of Caroline Lucas.
Fantasy Cabinet result audio from Hub2010
(download)
The New Economic Forum challenged the audience to suggest ideas for banking reform and to put forward a list of candidates to run the country.
Listen to the announcement and find out if you agree with the fantasy cabinet
LIFFE Gilt Auctions Nothing Particularly Effectual
Update on the earlier post about the LIFFE Gilt market opening up at 1am: Here's the original FT story (nb not alphaville, which I am told has different editorial standards). Bond markets don't actually ever open and close but brokers, a certain times of night, aren't around to place trades. So basically, brokers are awake to place trades special tonight. So far trading volume isn't insignificant, but it's not doing much either. At 1.30 GMT trading was around 0.95%, now it's at 0.72%. Want to watch the numbers live? Click here While the Guardian market watchers comment that the market is giving contradictory signals, "the markets have gone quiet." Greece plus the market tech hiccup plus the UK's hung parliament -- can't tell which way is up.
Second account of voters turned away in Sheffield #hubge2010
Anna, a journalism student from Sheffield, has given us her account of people being turned away from the polls there.
By @britesprite
When she arrived at 9pm, around 300 people were queuing, in two lines - one for students, the other for locals. Locals were being let in quicker, which was causing some friction, she says.
She says returns officer was apologetic, but claimed that they had little alternative as they had but four staff.
At 10pm the police - who had been called - tried to get all the remaining people into the station and close the doors. But at two minutes past the remaining 100 people were told that they would not be able to vote. Angry people chanted "we want to vote, we want to vote", and refused to leave. The standoff lasted until past 11pm, when, having made no headway, people began to drift home.
More details are available from the Sheffield journalism students' website at http://www.jusnews.co.uk/
Eyewitnees report from Sheffield Hallam polling station #hubge2010
Holly Taylor, NUS Education Officer for Sheffield University, has given an eyewitness account of how events at the Sheffield Hallam St John's Parish Centre polling station unfolded at the end of the night.
According to her people were queing outside the polling station from 1pm. At around 7pm the NUS was made aware that the situation at the polling station was "dangerously worrying" and that not everyone queuing would be able to vote.
Ms Taylor then went up to the polling station and saw that voters had been split into two queues: one for local residents and the other for students, both of which snaked outside the polling station for about 200m. However she estimated that the queue for the local residents was moving at 2-3 times the speed of the queue for the students meaning in her opinion that more local residents were able to vote than students, despite the fact that many students had valid polling cards.
During this time there were apparently comments passed between the two queues with some local residents saying that they had more right to vote in that consituency because they lived there permenantly.
When 10pm came as many people as possible were herded inside the polling station with the senior returning officer at that time giving the impression that they would all be able to vote. However this was soon changed after a phone call was received and the descision was reversed.
For a time it appears the atmosphere in the polling station was tense and some people attempted to stop the ballot box from leaving it. However with the police in attendence the situation slowly calmed and the ballot box was eventually allowed to leave at around 10.45pm. By around 11pm the polling station had emptied.
The Paul Tobin, the Sheffield University NUS President, has since gone down to the count but no one is willing to speak to him.
Ms Taylor said "Many students feel they have been treated as second class citizens and are disappointed to discover other people have have more rights than they do".
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