In the off-chance that you haven't noticed, Tuesday was election day. And as I've previously mentioned, this is a topic of some interest for people in these parts. Here's a brief recap of what went on!
On Tuesday evening I tried turning on the news at around 9 pm, with hopes of constant news on the election. Instead, believe it or not, they had the audacity (and they being BBC and Sky News) to show non-election news! I was like, what is this crap?? So being sleepy (I had to get up early to go to a meeting in Brighton!), I went to bed.
Then at around 3:30 am I woke up and checked the time. Fell back asleep. At 4:04 woke up again, knowing that I couldn't possibly just go back to sleep knowing that the California polls had just closed and the winner likely declare! So I got out of bed and turned on the BBC. Being half asleep (or perhaps more), I was admittedly quite confused to see some random man talking while standing in front of a bunch of African villagers dancing around and waving chairs in the air. It took a little longer than necessary to connect me to an Obama victory, but I made it there eventually. At this point I promptly turned the tv off and went back to bed.
When I got up for real, I again turned on the news, which by now was covering the election almost exclusively. All of the newspapers I saw (which in London, is a lot of newspapers) had Obama on the front cover. I was able to randomly discuss my feelings with random people at a conference I was attending for the day. The evening papers again were all plastered with Obama. There was a special on BBC 2 last night during prime time (8 pm?) on Obama. Basically this is as big as things get in these parts. I don't think they would have non-stop all night coverage of their local elections (of course, they would be during the day anyways). So let's just say that the UK is for once proud of our ability to elect a president!
One thing that I find slightly odd is that they concentrate so much on the one national election we have, and are somewhat oblivious to the number of things that are actually up in the air on election day. I mentioned to a few people that Gregoire was able to sneak in another victory, not because I thought they would care, but just so I could make a point that we voted on other things as a people. Personally, I think the Anglos are a bit jealous of our ability to vote for so many things! Remember, they don't even get to directly elect their leader! They just vote for their local dude and then the party selects the leader! It's silly, but that's for another time. What's important is that we've quickly manage to regain some much needed international street cred! Like the Europeans might start to concede that we're capable of rational thought now... or at least one can hope...
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it has had a lot of coverage and people are talking about it! like i went to the post office yesterday lunchtime to post a letter and the girl there had a Obama badge on! people were also talking about it in the gym changing room! i guess the election is of historical importance though...
expanding on the blog...we vote for our local MP and not for the Party leader or the current PM if they want to stay as their party leader (there is no limit on how long you can be PM for). the party with the most elected MPs wins the election and the party leader becomes PM. Now this causes slight issues as you are voting on the person who will best represent you locally in London (or the best candiate) - this person might not represent the party of your choice. For instance where my parents live the best person for the job is a Conservative member whereas I wouldnt choose to vote for the Conservatives. So an element of your vote as to go towards who you want to become PM not just the local dude or gal!
there is also no election day the PM just has to call an election within a certain period of time from the date he takes office! so it could last 3 years it could last 4! (often depending on the polls)
therefore as has happened currently we have an unelected (directly) PM. I.E Tony BLair was the party leader at the time of the last election, he was relected and then stood down. the labour party then held a leadership contest (where Gordon Brown was the only person to stand) and he therefore became PM as he was the leader of the Labour Party!
Then he has been under severe pressure...recently relieved due to his work in the credit crisis...but a couple months ago he could have gone too...which technically meant we could of had two unelected PM's (although this would of been unlikely and an election prob would of been called under public/ press pressure
not sure if that was interesting...its a good break from trip generation spreadsheets though!
It was exciting for some OSU fans to see the new OSU basketball coach on stage in Grant Park after Obama's acceptance speech. The coach, Craig Robinson, is Michelle Obama's brother. He also spoke at the Democratic National Convention. He isn't sure his sister and brother-in-law will be able to attend any games because he thinks they'll be pretty busy. If his ties to the White House helps in recruiting, that would be fine with him. Like his brother-in-law, he was selected for a job that he doesn't have a lot of experience for, but just about everyone involved was ready for a big change (OSU has lost 21 straight basketball games!)
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