Day Jar View

Turned out my short nap in the afternoon yesterday gave me enough in the tank to make it through to 2.30am this morning. Although, even without that kip, I’m pretty sure I could have made it anyway, as it was pretty compelling stuff.

I don’t know what it says about a person that they can stay awake for 4.5 hours of pundits punditing, graphics spinning, and newsreel repeating, but can’t stay awake to watch the first episode of Dexter Season 4, but no matter: it was great stuff.

This morning, instead of rolling back into bed when the kids were in nursery, I put the TV on and it’s got even more interesting. Brown appears to be getting sandbagged by the other two. Clegg has said it is up to the Tories to form a stable government as the largest party, but Labour have said it is up to them.

If Clegg won’t talk to Brown, can he stay? Cameron is making a statement at 2.30pm, so we’ll know then what he’s got planned.

Vote at 7.50am this morning, and there were a few people on their way in and out. Desperate to get rid of this Labour government hopefully.

I took a few surveys this week, where you choose whether you agree or disagree (or don’t care) about a series of statements, and then it tells you which party you are the closest to in percentage terms. You can exclude certain parties, presumably so that you don’t have a heart attack when you realise that what you thought were your liberal views are, in fact, those of Nick Griffin himself.

In the end, it turned out I was 53% Lib Dem, so that’s what I did. It is true that the Conservatives have no chance in this area, but I felt good about putting my cross next to May, as it will serve two purposes: Lib dems in, and Labour out nationally, with any luck.

First off, let me say that I am no supporter of the BNP. This isn’t about their politics, or even their personnel; it is about democracy and being treated like children.

For all its posturing, and the proclamations of their being the upholders of freedom of speech, the BBC bottled it last night. They gave Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, a national platform on the flagship political debate show Question Time, and then reduced the whole thing to a version of the Jeremy Kyle show, albeit with posher accents.

As I understand it, the point of Question Time, or any other debate show, is to debate the issues of the day. Instead, last night they debated the following: immigration (hardly news), the holocaust (er, news to be sure, but it didn’t happen this week), homosexuality and, erm, that’s it.

It may be that the panel don’t know which questions are going to come up, but I would bet my house that the producers of the show picked questions from the audience that they knew would expose the BNP’s views, rather than simply allowing debate on the issues of the day. And it seemed that the other panel members had been briefed to attack these at any opportunity, however slight.

I think this says more about the so-called tolerance of the British public, and the awful smugness of our liberal media elite: they pretend that they have done the decent thing, and then allow a massacre in the full glare of the studio lights.

Whatever you think of his politics, last night no-one came out of it looking good, and it may just have made people feel something new about the BNP – pity.