As a starting point, the TV coverage of UK elections shouldn't visibly hold the actual viewer in contempt. 'You want to see the declarations? Actually on TV? Ew' might as well have been the ticker tape for a lot of the GE2024 coverage.
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So much 'pundit' news on TV now. They think we want all the time
aug 3, 2025, 5:31 pm • 1 0 • view
...and the BBC ticker was rubbish, too, linked by the look of it to a list of the 2019 results, not who held seats now: so you got Hartlepool coming up as Labour Hold, and Shropshire North as Lib Dem Gain, two seismic events of the last Parliament just forgotten about. 1/2
aug 3, 2025, 8:56 pm • 0 0 • view
We'd watched a lot of old election coverage on BBC Parliament just before (yes, BBC, these are the sorts of nerds who are watching election coverage at 3am) and the contrast with David Butler et. al. effortlessly commanding the detail of each result was really stark. 2/2
aug 3, 2025, 8:56 pm • 2 0 • view
That’s the normal way, though. Baseline the previous GE. Made more varied by boundary change elections where the baseline is the notional result
aug 3, 2025, 9:18 pm • 0 0 • view
They also explained everything like speaking to a 12 year old, when the only people up at 3am for the declaration in dunny-on-the-wold are clued-in politics nerds anyway. They can explain stuff in the first hour after the exit poll then normal people go to bed!
aug 3, 2025, 5:31 pm • 19 0 • view
Yeah, I watched it back afterwards (because I was on the radio for the night itself) and I was just perplexed at who they *imagine* the 3am audience is made up of. Insomniacs whose remote controller has broken?
aug 3, 2025, 5:34 pm • 12 1 • view
The radio was fine. Treated the listener like a grown-up, didn’t take itself over seriously, and even treated us to a deceleration or two. They’d have been better plonking a TV camera in the BBC Radio studio and dispensing with the glam of TV
aug 3, 2025, 5:49 pm • 3 0 • view
Thanks! I thought so too. (As it happens there actually was a TV camera in the BBC radio studio, so a handful of people were able to witness my very loud jacket in the flesh.)
aug 3, 2025, 5:50 pm • 6 0 • view
I toyed with including your jacket as amongst the features of the radio experience, but thought there were even stronger cases to be made for radio over TV
aug 3, 2025, 5:55 pm • 1 0 • view
Yeah normally I'm pro the BBC being for a general audience but past 1am we're talking nerds only
aug 3, 2025, 5:33 pm • 2 0 • view
The BBC had put a huge amount of resource and clever thinking into how to show more counts than ever. and then showed fewer declarations than at any point*! I'm inclined to blame over-rehearsal for how much the TV election night coverage seemed bored of the story in front of it.
aug 3, 2025, 5:32 pm • 92 10 • view
There was a point where lots of declarations began coming in, maybe 2.30am, and the BBC had Neil Kinnock in chuntering on for about half an hour. Why? Who wants to hear from retired politicians from the 1980s?
aug 3, 2025, 5:38 pm • 2 0 • view
*Yes, I AM that much of a nerd.
aug 3, 2025, 5:32 pm • 29 0 • view
Part of a broader failure that on TV, too much of the BBC is afraid to be clever - on Canada's election night coverage this year, had Chantal Hébert, a 71 year old who has covered elections for the best part of half a century, going 'well, here's what Atlantic Canada suggests - but I remember 1995'
aug 3, 2025, 5:45 pm • 47 2 • view
As opposed to what we had here, which was basically, a TV programme that was incapable of extrapolating from, e.g. Leicester South or Barnsley Central or Holborn & St Pancras and what it meant for other candidates!
aug 3, 2025, 5:47 pm • 42 0 • view
Kind of telling really that in 2015 the election programmes were entirely capable of going 'so Ed Balls, are you going to lose your seat on these numbers' whereas in 2024 nobody was asking Wes Streeting the same question?
aug 3, 2025, 6:26 pm • 15 0 • view
Exactly! Reform did well in the quick counting seats and the coverage from then on was all about that. Think Swindon was the first representative seat, we got the result but no actual figures. All the channels were the same dire sound bite mess
aug 3, 2025, 5:56 pm • 1 0 • view
The way they handled the Swindon declaration was pure politico love-in. It's nice that Heidi Alexander and Robert Buckland seem to respect one another but... I've tuned in to hear what this result might mean for the election as a whole?
aug 3, 2025, 6:44 pm • 7 0 • view
There were other moments like that where 'which speeches got aired' seemed to be all about who someone random at the Beeb finds interesting - entirely mysterious to me why Suella Braverman got her entire victory speech broadcast but not, say, Badenoch
aug 3, 2025, 6:49 pm • 6 0 • view
BBC politics being overstaffed with useless people (15 lobby correspondents) and having redundanced all the researchers etc I think.
aug 3, 2025, 7:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Tho I don't think the structure was all that different in 2019, where they correctly mastered 'actually having a lot of declarations' and 'of course, we should show the speeches of the Labour leadership candidates'.
aug 3, 2025, 7:11 pm • 2 0 • view
It seemed to be all about who the presenters found to be interesting or had in their contact book.
aug 3, 2025, 7:08 pm • 1 0 • view
A big problem of course is that a lot of the people capable of doing that are tied up with the rather bizarre task of revising the exit poll projections as raw votes come in
aug 3, 2025, 5:51 pm • 10 0 • view
Have we lost the Butler/King role to getting the exit poll perfect through the night?
aug 3, 2025, 5:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Yeah, I don't really see the value in the exit poll updates through the night as a matter of course - adds nothing, better to have two psephologists on air.
aug 3, 2025, 5:58 pm • 9 0 • view
It was maddening in 2024 because it was clear what happened - the exit poll had picked up Reform's strength and Labour's weakness in urban safe seats but confused itself by conflating the two because it had not picked up the gaza independents.
aug 3, 2025, 6:02 pm • 8 0 • view
Which is why having John Curtice at the desk shaping the coverage rather than handing down updated polls like stone tablets would be a far better use of time (incidentally, as a fan of the man, he really seems to have gone off the boil in recent years).
aug 3, 2025, 6:04 pm • 4 0 • view
Our poll matters more than those result things.
aug 3, 2025, 6:08 pm • 2 0 • view
The talk about Labour 'underperforming the exit poll':!! that's not how it works!
aug 3, 2025, 6:10 pm • 6 1 • view
It took them two revisions to get it right, with a first revision that massively revised down labour's numbers because they were still wedded to their overprojection of the Tories, memory holed in quite a stalinist way. Curtice rightly looked embarrassed when Vine tried to celebrate the exit poll
aug 3, 2025, 6:05 pm • 5 0 • view
And it’s ridiculous even in the stupid ‘viral moment’ quest because all anyone will care about/remember is what you said when Big Ben went bong at 10pm
aug 3, 2025, 6:11 pm • 2 0 • view
That's my sense of it. The people who could play that role are busy, and the time you'd dedicate to them is spent evaluating how well the exit poll is doing in a simplistic way
aug 3, 2025, 5:59 pm • 3 0 • view
Without going too Chomsky (and certainly not “that is their intent” style FBPE paranoia), the fact they tried to mold the narrative re results to their predictions regarding Reform is a part of the reasons they are now leading the polls* *I mean the main reason is Badenoch is terrible but still
aug 3, 2025, 6:04 pm • 8 0 • view
The BBC etc know the slot ratings.... declarations don't rate
aug 4, 2025, 1:15 am • 0 0 • view
Chantal Hebert is a national treasure. We are so lucky to have her here in Canada. She is wisdom personified. #cbc
aug 3, 2025, 5:51 pm • 9 1 • view
And they also do analysis of the UK quite well too youtu.be/LUqkdCGSoFg?...
aug 3, 2025, 6:26 pm • 0 0 • view
Chantal Hebert is one of my favourite political analysts internationally. Smart, no bullshit, and actually insightful.
aug 3, 2025, 6:10 pm • 1 0 • view
A terrific terrific analyst.
aug 3, 2025, 6:11 pm • 0 0 • view
(Andrew Coyne, who CBC also often has, is also excellent. A sort of establishment centrist colossus; if you've got Coyne around every other dispenser of conventional wisdom centrism looks (is) shallow in comparison.)
aug 3, 2025, 6:19 pm • 0 0 • view
It's such a stellar line-up of people who all show that 'commentator' is *also* a reporting job if you actually want to do it well.
aug 3, 2025, 6:20 pm • 1 0 • view
We are so fortunate to have Chantal Hebert's insight and institutional knowledge of the Canadian electorate. She's a living encyclopedia.
aug 3, 2025, 6:20 pm • 0 0 • view
Democracy should be about choosing representatives we trust to make decisions on our behalf. The current electoral system is about which team of unelected, unrepresentative (pseudo-) ideologues manages to market itself best so that its chosen selectees are voted for by just enough people.
aug 3, 2025, 5:40 pm • 1 0 • view
Watched the BBC GE 2024 coverage. Wanted more declarations and more acceptance/defeat speeches. Some of the graphics were incomprehensible. Studio stuff was underwhelming.
aug 3, 2025, 5:41 pm • 1 0 • view
It was one of the worst election results shows I've ever seen (Ros Atkins at Liz Truss' count an honourable exception), even more than 2001 (or was it 05) when they had Steve Bell doing live cartoons throughout the night.
aug 3, 2025, 5:49 pm • 0 0 • view
For the recent Locals, my council had their own webcam at the count streaming all day, even cutting between a wide shot of the entire room and a closer shot of the stage they announce declarations from as and when. You'd think they'd be trying to make use of that sort of thing- it's free!
aug 3, 2025, 7:02 pm • 1 0 • view
The best way to watch a GE is to have the results appearing over a repeat of 1986 Omnibus special "Video Jukebox" with John Peel & John Walters.
aug 3, 2025, 7:21 pm • 0 0 • view
I think its a reflection of BBC editorial direction. Prefering to show discussion than right-wing losses.
aug 3, 2025, 5:33 pm • 1 0 • view
That plus I think they realised early on if they wanted to keep talking about the shiny new thing (Reform’s exit poll performance) they couldn’t speak to anyone about the actual results because it was obviously far too high after about 30 mins
aug 3, 2025, 5:37 pm • 8 1 • view
I seem to recall they were covering one of the early declarations where based on the exit poll, it looked like Reform might take a Labour seat… then they didn’t and the BBC cut away while visibly losing interest as though that wasn’t an important story which said something about the exit poll!
aug 3, 2025, 5:42 pm • 11 0 • view
Would have bloody loved to have seen ours in high-res live-o-vision, with our Conservative ex-MP all ready to read out his several pages of A4 victory gubbins, and then discovering in a tense nail-biter that he’d lost by a few hundred votes to a Lib Dem charity worker.
aug 3, 2025, 5:40 pm • 6 1 • view
Childish, I know, but...
aug 3, 2025, 5:54 pm • 2 0 • view
I saw a dodgy video someone had recorded and even from that distance the gasp when the LD number was announced was great. As was the second date the Con number was announced and everyone did their calculations as to what it meant. Properly seismic. Totally ignored on the night.
aug 3, 2025, 7:15 pm • 4 0 • view
I simply do not understand how they have misunderstood the market for election night coverage this badly. Like, this is for the wonks. The people who are up at 2AM with a bag of cans, an inadvisable pizza and a homemade swingometer. Give them what they WANT.
aug 3, 2025, 5:35 pm • 19 0 • view
It's Eurovision for parliament nerds and they're treating it like Newsnight.
aug 3, 2025, 5:37 pm • 10 0 • view
It felt like the different channels were competing to see who could miss most.
aug 3, 2025, 5:34 pm • 3 0 • view
Not showing the declarations was criminal, but what was really unforgivable for me was how the talking heads were wedded to the "Reform-quake" narrative that they went with after the exit poll, even after it became clear the actual results showed nothing of the sort
aug 3, 2025, 6:09 pm • 10 0 • view
Channel 4 coverage was very good
aug 3, 2025, 7:28 pm • 1 0 • view
It was so bad we switched to Sky. I voluntarily watched Andy Burnham for -hours- rather than whatever the hell the BBC were doing. That's your yardstick, right there.
aug 3, 2025, 5:34 pm • 4 0 • view
They were all rubbish. I jumped from one to the other, just staying with each one till it got unbearable
aug 3, 2025, 6:31 pm • 1 0 • view
I have a similar response to this as I do to the Oscars, which increasingly acts like its audience hates movies. It’s the Oscars! People are watching because they’re interested in films! Stop acting embarrassed about it!
aug 3, 2025, 6:32 pm • 4 0 • view
The 2024 coverage was disgraceful. Still cross about it. BBC needs to be told.
aug 3, 2025, 5:29 pm • 18 0 • view
It was universally rubbish.
aug 3, 2025, 5:30 pm • 0 0 • view
In addition to the problems others have mentioned I thought Laura Kuenssberg and Clive Myrie were excruciating as co hosts. It was painful to sit through.
aug 3, 2025, 6:04 pm • 3 0 • view
ITV was noticeably better (still not good) than BBC.
aug 3, 2025, 5:30 pm • 2 0 • view
ITV was a lot better, not least because they actually did just have to have more filler (as they had fewer cameras).
aug 3, 2025, 5:30 pm • 7 0 • view
Ignoring Swindon was absolutely unforgivable.
aug 3, 2025, 5:33 pm • 5 0 • view
100%.
aug 3, 2025, 5:35 pm • 1 0 • view
It would be nice if they actually told you what was going on instead of endless chatter between pundits about pundit things. I think by 2am, I a rank amateur at this game, had worked out that the turnout badly down, that Labour were probably at 35% and that reform were underperforming the poll.
aug 3, 2025, 7:15 pm • 7 0 • view
Now if I could work it out surely their bigbrains could and talk about that and how Labour was winning seats they'd never had a sniff at before, that the LibDems were killing it and Indos and Grn were doing very well in some seats. But no, lets cut to a shot of Farage through a window eating a meal.
aug 3, 2025, 7:18 pm • 7 0 • view
And the thing is, I don't think they've worked out what they did wrong at all, so we can expect more of the same next time. Sod that I'll be watching sky, but I will miss the BBC's little silly stunt which they feature at the start with a lot of hype and then cut back to once through the night.
aug 3, 2025, 7:20 pm • 4 0 • view
The whole point of election coverage is to see the mayor or lord lieutenant dressed in their finery to announce a result next to someone wearing a dinosaur costume.
aug 3, 2025, 5:38 pm • 7 1 • view
Right. Was in a pub watching it and they completely skipped a bunch of soon to be Secretaries of State, so they could discuss for the 300th time if this is a Reform wave.
aug 3, 2025, 5:33 pm • 7 0 • view
one of the most frustrating tv experiences ever
aug 3, 2025, 5:38 pm • 0 0 • view
At GE2024 I was Lib Dem agent in Broxtowe in a Tory held marginal liable to go Labour (it did). No press / TV interest at all. The voters held in complete disdain.
aug 3, 2025, 6:10 pm • 4 0 • view
I lasted barely an hour on BBC1 on election night, just because the presentation was terrible. I flicked around ITV and Channel 4 in what can only be called desultory fashion, then did the entirely correct thing, which was going bed and putting on Radio4
aug 3, 2025, 5:56 pm • 1 0 • view
Going to bed at 10 is always the right call. Set the alarm for 5am when the results are coming in thick and fast.
aug 3, 2025, 6:23 pm • 1 0 • view
They should show the exit poll, then put Airplane! on. By the time it's finished there'll be some actual news.
aug 3, 2025, 5:36 pm • 4 0 • view
I think they desperately want an electronic voting system so they get the results in the first 5 minutes and then they can spend all night talking about it
aug 3, 2025, 5:51 pm • 0 0 • view
It should be like the Olympics where you can find every race covered somewhere.
aug 3, 2025, 8:09 pm • 0 0 • view
It was so infuriating, especially given how many counts the BBC had cameras at.
aug 3, 2025, 5:29 pm • 9 0 • view
But then most of the seats are declared at like 2AM onwards and *nobody* wants to stay up for that, not even for watching Liz Truss losing her seat other than the hard-core politics nerds*
aug 3, 2025, 5:29 pm • 1 0 • view
Presumably a lot of it's done with a view to the clips they'll then recycle for the next couple of days. Who doesn't want multiple camera angles of Lizz Truss losing on repeat.
aug 3, 2025, 5:50 pm • 2 0 • view
The moment they jumped to live podcast recording was when you could hear Robin Day doing 8,000rpm in his grave.
aug 3, 2025, 5:40 pm • 4 0 • view
Essentially the Eurovision format?
aug 3, 2025, 5:33 pm • 0 0 • view