When I was young, schools would have mock elections and communities would talk about being Lab/Tory - children would be as involved as anyone else in the 'tribes'. Got pretty vicious, sometimes.
The big difference I've noticed with this election is the huge variation in coverage and caring depending on whether you are in a safe seat (my parents have had a couple leaflets but there's no posters or anything in the whole town), or a key marginal (I've had weekly flyers for a couple years, chatted to the candidates a few times in the last few months, usually at the station while waiting for a train, and we're getting daily leaflets now - I feel unloved if I don't get one every day!) This makes a huge difference as to whether you feel involved or not.
1997 and 1992 were big deals. 1983 was in some places. 2005 and 2001 and 1987 weren't very interesting at all.
Aaaah, that explains it. I'm living in one of the safest seats in the country and was wondering why I'm getting so little (one leaflet from each party, plus a nice newspapery thing from the party controlling the local council). I'm used to living in a marginal, and therefore seeing a lot more posters in windows.
Actually, I have not seen a single billboard this year for anyone but the Tories - not here, not when I was down in London for a few days. It's very strange.
The Tories have about 3x more money than Labour (30x LDs), and billboards cost a lot. And sometimes backfire (eg the flying pigs one). Only other one I've seen in last few years is the Christian Party local nutter.
Ha-ha. I love NPR. I, like you, don't get much in the way of mainstream media, so I'm wondering if NPR cover's more news from our transatlantic cousins because of it's closeness to BBC, or if its normal to hear about Britain's news as much as we do.
i'm an american living in south belfast. admittedly, i haven't been following the election in the least so i don't know whether i'm even eligible to comment on it. however, there are local elections in belfast going on at the moment and i find it kind of funny that there are posters with candidates' faces on (what seems to be) every light post in the city. i haven't seen that sort of thing in the US.
The posters with faces on on every lamp-post is very much a NI thing - you don't get it in the rest of the country, although there are a few posters with the Labour guy round me (he's young and good-looking...)
I was in NI before the last election and the local guy taking me round said it was because the candidates were well-known and people would recognise them. And students would scribble moustaches and glasses on the posters at night. Pause. Except for Gerry Adams - they had to use Tipp-Ex for him...
NI is very different because the 3 main UK parties don't even stand in NI (except for a couple posh areas where the Tories put up a candidate) - one fear of proportional representation is that tiny parties like the NI ones could hold the balance of power, like they did when John Major lost his majority in Parliament.
The Daily Show did a bit last week which was high-fucking-larious. Otherwise, none. But then, I don't watch the news and unless EW covers it, I don't really know what is going on.
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The big difference I've noticed with this election is the huge variation in coverage and caring depending on whether you are in a safe seat (my parents have had a couple leaflets but there's no posters or anything in the whole town), or a key marginal (I've had weekly flyers for a couple years, chatted to the candidates a few times in the last few months, usually at the station while waiting for a train, and we're getting daily leaflets now - I feel unloved if I don't get one every day!) This makes a huge difference as to whether you feel involved or not.
1997 and 1992 were big deals. 1983 was in some places. 2005 and 2001 and 1987 weren't very interesting at all.
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Actually, I have not seen a single billboard this year for anyone but the Tories - not here, not when I was down in London for a few days. It's very strange.
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I was in NI before the last election and the local guy taking me round said it was because the candidates were well-known and people would recognise them. And students would scribble moustaches and glasses on the posters at night. Pause. Except for Gerry Adams - they had to use Tipp-Ex for him...
NI is very different because the 3 main UK parties don't even stand in NI (except for a couple posh areas where the Tories put up a candidate) - one fear of proportional representation is that tiny parties like the NI ones could hold the balance of power, like they did when John Major lost his majority in Parliament.
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Yeah, I'm lame.
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