Whoever you vote for, the Dimblebys still get in

Paul Robinson at Iconoplex has been watching the Parliament Channel's rerun of the BBC's coverage of the night of the 1955 general election.

From his account it sounds rather like reading an old newspaper. You are struck partly by how similar things are and partly by how different they are.

In the former category, there was a Dimbleby in charge of proceedings even then. Robinson writes:

Through the grainy black and white, a rather fat Richard Dimbleby can be made out delivering his patter and fighting his analysts in much the same way as his sons do today.

In the latter category, Manchester Withington - the Lib Dems' shock gain from Labour in this year's election - was held by the Tories with a majority of 10,000.

Incidentally:

Iconoplex is built on one premise: political parties and cliques are destroying democracy around the World. Iconoplex is a site that champions independent representation and for democratic power being genuinely placed into the electorate's hands. The long-term goal is to remove political parties from power, particularly in the UK.