The train I ride ...
Dec. 13th, 2019 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomust... is a shiny new Azuma model. Which apparently means that it can accelerate away from the stations faster; also that the interesting tilt, which tries to slide me down my seat towards the window, is a design feature: for wwhatever reason, it is supposed to do that. But we are on the train, and the friendly staff have supplied us with food and drink (and wifi); and we are heading south to family and friends and carol singing and other pleaqsures. So that's all good.
But as that title line may reveal, I have earwormed myself with Worried Man Blues (one of that minority of the songs of my childhood which I associate with my father rather than my mother). Every prospect is that I'm worried now, and I will be even more worried before long. I sat up until 1.00 am, but I might as well have gone to bed after the exit poll. It was, in the end, not quite as bad for Labour as that forecast, but it was quite bad enough. The one consolation, I suppose, is that Durham City did pretty much as I expected: Labour held the seat with a reduced majority, the LibDems, despite what their election material claimed, came in some way behind the Tories, and the Green saved his deposit. Now to find out what our new MP is like...
We watched the reporting on BBC, which may have been a mistake. I still look to the BBC in times of crisis, but I begin to wonder. Too many opinions, too little information, even before you start to ask about the balance of those oinions. Too much carrying on talking when the results are beginning to flow in; too much evident enjoyment of Labour's losses. Talking head after talking head repeating that canvassers encountered criticism of Jeremy Corbyn on the doorstep, while no-one, apparently, had a bad word to say about Boris. Yes, that Boris, the Boris who's been kept away from members of the public over primary school age. Now that Boris has his majority, apparently, he will be free to reveal his true self as a one-nation Tory (yes, and that one nation is England)...
The consensus seems to be that the early result from Blyth Valley set the tone for the night. And yes, Blyth Valley voting Conservative is a shock and a reversal (and clearly threw a spanner in the works of the attempt to beat the record for the speed of the count) and a sign of worse to come. But the repeated assertion that Blyth Valley had been a Labour seat continuously since the 1950s overlooks the brief but notorious interruption caused by Eddie Milne. A pedant concedes that Milne stood as Independant Labour, but feels that he doesn't deserve to be forgotten. File this paragraph under I think you'll find it's more complicated than that.
Meanwhile, on the train, heading south, planning to have fun...
But as that title line may reveal, I have earwormed myself with Worried Man Blues (one of that minority of the songs of my childhood which I associate with my father rather than my mother). Every prospect is that I'm worried now, and I will be even more worried before long. I sat up until 1.00 am, but I might as well have gone to bed after the exit poll. It was, in the end, not quite as bad for Labour as that forecast, but it was quite bad enough. The one consolation, I suppose, is that Durham City did pretty much as I expected: Labour held the seat with a reduced majority, the LibDems, despite what their election material claimed, came in some way behind the Tories, and the Green saved his deposit. Now to find out what our new MP is like...
We watched the reporting on BBC, which may have been a mistake. I still look to the BBC in times of crisis, but I begin to wonder. Too many opinions, too little information, even before you start to ask about the balance of those oinions. Too much carrying on talking when the results are beginning to flow in; too much evident enjoyment of Labour's losses. Talking head after talking head repeating that canvassers encountered criticism of Jeremy Corbyn on the doorstep, while no-one, apparently, had a bad word to say about Boris. Yes, that Boris, the Boris who's been kept away from members of the public over primary school age. Now that Boris has his majority, apparently, he will be free to reveal his true self as a one-nation Tory (yes, and that one nation is England)...
The consensus seems to be that the early result from Blyth Valley set the tone for the night. And yes, Blyth Valley voting Conservative is a shock and a reversal (and clearly threw a spanner in the works of the attempt to beat the record for the speed of the count) and a sign of worse to come. But the repeated assertion that Blyth Valley had been a Labour seat continuously since the 1950s overlooks the brief but notorious interruption caused by Eddie Milne. A pedant concedes that Milne stood as Independant Labour, but feels that he doesn't deserve to be forgotten. File this paragraph under I think you'll find it's more complicated than that.
Meanwhile, on the train, heading south, planning to have fun...
