May 7, 2010 UK General Election 2010
00:30 I leave the Red Lion and head for the count at Stevenage Leisure Centre. I am an ‘Official Counting Agent’ tonight. I’ve been advised to get there sometime after midnight, “Not much happens before then.”
As I walk from the Old Town I fall in with four guys. Three of them are Labour and one Conservative. In Stevenage You can’t tell who’ll be voting for whom from appearances. We’re definitely post-tribal.
One asks who I voted for today. I decline to say. He apologises for asking. Everyone takes the secret part of voting very seriously. They turn for the leisure park to go clubbing. I carry on to the Leisure Centre for the count. I feel very grown up and sensible.
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Posted in: Soap Box
May 6, 2010 UK General Election 2010
general election 2010
05:30 My alarm goes off. The big day has arrived. Today in Stevenage we will be voting for a member of parliament and local councillors. I stumble around my flat, half asleep, hoping I will wake up soon.
I’m starting the day ‘telling’ at Fry Road. I need to be there for opening at 7:00. Telling involves sitting outside of a polling station asking for voters’ polling card number.
06:30 I leave home. It’s bright and crisp and way too early. I walk to the polling station, there are no other tellers around when I arrive. The Labour teller turns up. We shake hands and introduce ourselves. Howard is a Labour councillor for the ward although not running this year.
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I was looking at the Red Lion web site to see who was playing there tonight. I do not think anyone is. There is a note on the site to the effect that the brewery, Green King, has cut the music budget due to the current economic conditions. So instead of live music four times a week it is going to be twice a week, maybe occasionally three times a week.
I would like to point out to any bankers who maybe reading this, that the credit crunch thing is now personal, and YES we do have a problem.
Looking at last week’s vid of Bowie in the 80s made me go look for some of his stuff from the 70s. This is when, under the influence of my elder sister, I became a Bowie fan.
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Posted in: Friday Night Music
We out on Thursday to the Red to check out their new Thursday night attraction, a “Rock Quiz.”
As I walked in the door the first question I heard was, “On what album, produced by Ian Hunter did Davis Bowie play the saxophone?”
Does anyone know stuff like that? If they do, are they allowed out of their institutions often?
Seriously, WTF? The answer should be, “Get a life.”
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Posted in: Friday Night Music
