Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Election Battleground: The Complete Series

Yesterday I recorded the final three ELECTION BATTLEGROUND programmes in the series. Robert Waller and I have now discussed the boundary changes and marginal seats in each region of Britain, finishing off with Yorkshire & Humberside, the South of England and the East Midlands. You can access each programme by clicking on the links below.

South of England

East Midlands

Yorkshire & Humberside

South London
North London
Scotland
South West
South East
West Midlands
Wales
North of England
East Anglia
North West

There's also a thirty minute interview with Robert Waller talking about his book the ALMANAC OF BRITISH POLITICS HERE. You can buy the book HERE for £37.99.

17 comments:

Manfarang said...

Incomplete! Northern Ireland votes in Westminster general elections.
Has your party given up unionism?

Iain Dale said...

Congratulations for being the first pedant. I very carefully said "Great Britain". The boundary changes for Northern Ireland have not been implemented yet so we could not discuss them, as I explained at the end of the final programme on Yorkshire. When they are announced, no doubt we will record a special. Happy?!!

And what on earth has this got to do with "my party"?

Anonymous said...

this has been a great series Iain, loved every minute of it. The man's instant knowledge of every inch of the UK was deeply impressive and I've learned more about local british politics from these programs than anywhere else.

Manfarang said...

Ok good,the almost complete series.

scott redding said...

In your "South of England" programme, your analysis of Oxford East didn't mention that Peter Tatchell is running for the Greens there. Oxford already has 8 Green city councillors, and Oxford East has wards like St Mary's where Greens receive 66 per cent of the vote. Plus the inclusion of the university that Waller mentioned. If Tatchell can confront Mike Tyson face to face about his homophobia, he should be able to punch above his weight against Andrew Smith ;)

Anonymous said...

"Politics is no longer left or right, it's authority or freedom."

Ian Parker-Joseph


So is Dave C a libertarian ? We shoud be told.

If you are then go here ...

http://thejournal.parker-joseph.co.uk/blog/_archives/2007/12/1/3385439.html

Unknown said...

I thought that instead of watching the TV series I would wait for the movie to come out.

M. Hristov said...

Good news but I fear that I shall have a late night tonight,as I can't stop watching the series once I start!!

Richard said...

Since our central government is now in Brussels, and it cannot be changed by democratic means, should we not we talking about a "reshuffle" rather than an election?

We are effectively looking at an "electorally mandated (partial) reshuffle" rather than a general election. We get to change one face on the European Council and send new members to the Council of the European Union. Our government though (and its policies) will remain unchanged.

Anonymous said...

Yorkshire and Humberside?! Humberside ceased to exist eleven years ago.

Anonymous said...

I've just been listening to the section of 'North' London - a couple of observations/complaints:

1. The first six minutes was spent on talking about seats in EAST LONDON AND ESSEX.

2. When it came to Enfield, which is REALLY in North London, there wasn't a single mention of Edmonton - a seat we held until 2007!

3. The Last ten minutes was spent on WEST London seats.

Overall, it could have been better!

Iain Dale said...

Anonymous, one programme was seats north of the river, the other was on seats south of the river.

Andy said...

It looks like one of those Open University programmes from the early 80's.

Anonymous said...

Think it would had been better to have carved London up into North, South, East & West. Too late now.

Anonymous said...

The Boundary Commission has not recognised the local government abolition of Humberside, and also created an important 'cross-border' seat at Brigg and Goole.
For thise who complained about us dividing Wales by outmoded admin counties like Clwyd and Dyfed, the same applies; that's how the parliamentary BC worked them out eg still Clwyd West and Clwyd South.
And talking about out of date: we didn't have anything in North London that's been in Essex since 1965!
As for more programmes in London, that would be so capital-centric. London had two programmes for 74 seats. One programme on the South of England for well over 70, same for Scotland. And you want four?

Anonymous said...

£37.99 I could have bought a Peerage.

Anonymous said...

Sehr geEhrter Iain

Gewaltig [OutRageous]

Your Map includes the East & Middle Saxons & Londinium in Wessex

A Norfolk man should know Besser - they were of course in Mercia

... at least until the Labour Party ("the Vikings", who believed in re-distribution of What little Wealth remained after their "taxation" expeditions) reduced Inglaterra to the Chaos, that left the Lib-Dems ("Wessex") as the only viable alternative

..... Harrumphus Harrumpha Harrumphissimum ....

Alles Gute

G Eagle