General Election Thread

I agree it was great in the atrium, but I imagine Julie wil have a more prominent role than dealing with the graphics. Think it's been Alastair the last few times, but as he's hosting that rules him out. I imagine Mark Austin wil do something more prominent, so not quite sure who might do that side of things for ITV - Katie Derham or James Mates perhaps.


I can't see C4 doing anything. If they did though, rather than doing a straight news programme I'd rather see them do some alternative election night coverage, with the results playing second fiddle to some pointless entertainment.

Also think it's a shame C4 were not in the frame for any of the debates. I've no interest really in the three planned, but if Jon Snow (or Paxman) was anchoring one I'd be much more likely to watch.

ISTR that ITN have to pay a significant amount of money to use the Atrium as a TV studio? (AIUI they no longer own Gray's Inn Road, and lease their space in it?)

Maybe ITV won't do a full scale General Election night special this year.
After all the memorable election moments down the years have all been on the BBC ( Portillo losing in 1997, Paxman interviewing Galloway in 2005, Sir James Goldsmith clapping and shouting down David Mellor in 1997 and the smile on the face of David Amess MP just moments before the Basildon result was declared in 1992.
In my opinion ITV Would be better off if on Election night they either showed a load of Carry On films back to back and interupted them for hourly updates from somebody like Mark Austin at ITN , or they relayed the Sky News coverage.

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ITV are definitely doing a full scale Election programme.

Well, three of those were on ITV anyway, what with them happening while the results were being declared.

Not quite correct. Many would argue that the campaign has already started as all political parties know that there must be an election by June.

If 'Square Eyes' is asking about the official period between calling an election and it taking place, then that is a set period determined by the Parliament Act 1911 .

Once Parliament is dissolved, a proclamation is issued calling for a new one to be elected. That election must take place on the fourth Thursday after the proclamation.

For the election to take place on 6th May, as many believe, then Parliament must be dissolved and a proclamation issued between 9-14 April.

There can be a longer period of time between the announcement of the election and when it is held, but this involves proroguing Parliament (which happens every year when there is a break between the old session of Parliament and the state opening) and then dissolving it at a later date. IIRC John Major did this in 1997.

It is possible, therefore, for Gordon Brown to announce tomorrow that the General Election will be on 6 May, and then he asks for Parliament to be prorogued so that a "proper" election campaign can begin early. Parliament would then be dissolved on whichever day in early April would cause a 6 May poll. Not that he would, of course, bit too long.

Indeed, the Government can announce its intention to hold an election whenever it likes, that is not subject to any timetable, beyond the Parliament actually expiring after 5 years, which is outside their control. However, the actual timetable of issuing a proclamation and the election being held remain fixed as described above.

Technically the dissolution of Parliament and the issue of the proclamation don't need to take place at the same time. I don't believe there is anything which requires the monarch to issue it on the same day as they dissolve Parliament; although I suspect that a delay of more than a day or a weekend would initiate some sort of constitutional procedure by the Judiciary (as there would be no Legislature).

I'd dispute that the election must take place on a Thursday. It is customary, and every general election since 1935 has followed that, but AFAIK it's not in any legislation that it must be so. If a future government decided that they wanted to hold a general election on a Saturday, there's nothing stopping them.

This Parliamentary Factsheet [pdf] has some more information on the process of calling an election.

More recent version of that ...

The House of Commons - RESEARCH PAPER - 09/44 - 13 MAY 2009 - Election timetables

Perhaps wrongly, I was making an assumption that they weren't going to change the day of the week, as that would mean that it wouldn't coincide with the English Local Elections, unless they moved those as they did in 2001 because of 'Foot & Mouth'.

However, having read DVB's link above, it appears that some of my calculations were slightly out....although there does seem to be a fixed timetable.