September 11: Election counts: day or night?
Election nights are
long, drawn out affairs when nothing at all happens for long
periods. They can prove exhausting as results dribble in slowly and
you still aren't sure who has won by dawn.
But they are also exhilarating adrenalin-fuelled occasions
providing rare moments of high political drama, somehow heightened
by the fact that it is happening at a time when most of us are in
bed. Would our memories of Labour's landslide in 1997 be quite as
vivid if it was not for people defining them by asking "were you
still up for Portillo?"
One of the most striking moments of the last general election in
Kent was when Medway MP Bob Marshall-Andrews popped up on
television to say he had lost and then blamed Tony Blair for his
defeat. About an hour later after a recount, he'd hung on to his
seat.
So I'm with those who want to keep the system we have now of
election results being declared overnight.
In Kent, two councils have indicated they want to move to
daytime voting on Friday while others are undecided and some
suggest they'll stick with overnight counting.
This seems the worst of all worlds - either they should all
count on Friday or stick with counting through the night on
Thursday.
Read our story here and join the
campaign to Keep General Election Night on
Facebook. There's also extensive coverage on the
Conservativehome website, where the campaign was started by
commentator Jonathan Isaby.
UP-DATE: It seems Justice Secretary Jack Straw is considering
writing to returning officers about the issue and indicating
support to stick with the current arrangements.
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Kent County Council has played down the amount it has had
to spend on security at empty school premises. I suppose in the
context of its overall budget, the bill for £290,000 for
maintenance and security at 15 schools isn't that much.
But I was around when KCC embarked on implementing its primary
school re-organisation by closing and merging dozens of schools and
one of the arguments made was that the authority was spending
£3million a year maintaining empty desks.
Interestingly, the £290,000 spend this year is not all the costs
associated with this activity - overall since the various closures,
the expense has been in the region of £700,000.
Take into account the thousands spent on redundancy payments to
former staff at these schools and the slump in the property market
and you could ask whether the painful process of re-organising
schools will ultimately prove as financially beneficial as
originally envisaged.
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Tonbridge and Malling Conservative MP Sir John
Stanley has made a withering attack on the profits made by
some of his colleagues through their expenses claims on second
homes.
In a letter submitted to the committee examining reforms of the
system, he is forthright saying some were guilty of making gains of
"truly huge proportions" and votes were absolutely right to be
angry.
I wonder if any other Kent MPs will be submitting their views to
the Committee on Standards in Public Life?
Friday, September 11 2009