Election 74 on BBC Parliament

BBC Election 74
Sunday 10th October 2004 9.00am-11.45pm BBC PARLIAMENT

BBC Parliament marks the 30th anniversary of the historic October 1974 poll, with a chance to relive the second General Election of 1974 which returned Harold Wilson to power with an overall majority of just three.

Alastair Burnet presents the BBC Election 74 results programme, with analysis by David Butler and Robert McKenzie (aided by his trusty swingometer) and interviews by Robin Day with leading political figures and commentators.

The questions of the night – Thursday 10th October 1974:
- Can Labour secure an historic fourth election victory under Harold Wilson’s leadership?
- Can Ted Heath reverse his February election defeat and break Labour’s hold on power?
- Or will the Liberals hold the balance of power in a hung parliament?

The BBC’s Michael Charlton is with Prime Minister Harold Wilson in his constituency of Huyton; David Dimbleby is with Conservative leader Edward Heath in Sidcup; and David Lomax is with Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe in his Devon North constituency.

Background information
Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath’s decision to call a snap election in February 1974 backfired.  His plea to the electors to "return a strong government with a firm mandate" was ignored as Britain was faced with its first hung parliament since 1929.

Although Labour won fewer votes than the Conservatives, the party took four more seats, 301 against 297.  After four days of indecision that saw Heath unable to convince the Liberals to lend him their support he had no choice but to resign.  Labour leader Harold Wilson was back in Downing Street for the third time, but now he would have to deal with the fresh challenge of heading a minority administration which could fall at any time.

In the brief period between elections on 28 February and 10 October Labour could point to steady progress.  Inflation may have been running at around 20%, but the miners’ strike had been resolved and the state of emergency imposed by Heath had ended.

In the hope of extracting some of the thorns from the now perennial problem of industrial relations the Pay Board was abolished and the Tories’ Industrial Relations Act was scrapped.  Chancellor Denis Healey put through two steady budgets which saw an increase in pensions, but also an increase in the basic rate of income tax and top rate income tax.

Tory leader Edward Heath kept a relatively low profile after his defeat in February. It had been a massive blow to his position, but the Tory party stayed his political execution, fearing a change of leadership with an election imminent.

I had feared that they had stopped re-running these election programmes, because non appeared over the summer, when they had quite a lot of opportunities in-between the gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Democrat and Republican National Convention, rather than repeating repeats of recorded House and Committee meetings ad nauseum.

It will be interesting to watch; wouldn't mine seeing some others as well, Election 97 would be good to watch again, seeing Tory after Tory losing their seats!

Portillo, Michael Charles Xavier......

classic moment

Details here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/3714742.stm

Did anyone see a brief news summary with Kenneth Kendal just before the breakfast coverage (about 1500 today)? Doing a brief weather summary was none other than Michael Fish. A timely coincidence, and that red tank top... Priceless.

Very funny, just saw someone called Brian Walker do a report from as the caption put it 'at Down South' he had one hand on his hip in a camp fashion and looked like he was the guy from the classic football chant 'Who at all the pies'...LOL

This is hillarious it really is, they're all so laid back in the studio and using some mad camera shots i.e. an over the shoulder at the presenters desk - WOW!

Just seen Keith Graves and Martin Bell reporting from the party headquarters

I've made my feeling regarding these broadcasts and BBC Parliament completely clear before.

While I don't object to live coverage of the conferences and parliament - as a Freeview viewer I think it could be managed with greater flexibility - especially when there is no live coverage from Parliament.

For example, at the weekend using the space for BBC Parliament to broadcast the News 24 Sports Headline service.

And vice versa, there is no reason why during the week when 701 and 702 are not both in use (as most of the time they are not!) their can't be a full screen feed from Parliament.

BBC Parliament actually has a pretty full schedule. When the Commons isn't sitting, there is important recorded coverage of the House of Lords, select committees and devolved assemblies to be shown. These shouldn't be discarded lightly.

BBC Parliament works just fine as it is, though I would like to see it in full screen on DTT.

Rather ironic that Michael Fish was the morning weather forecaster on the day.

What sort of viewing figures does BBC Parliament get - I expect it's far less than even BBC4.

I'd say far less, maybe a few thousand if that, if you think about it, BBCP is the least promoted channel out of the 8 and frankly do you hear anyone say: 'Oh let's watch BBC Parliament for the evening', I guess it's more a channel for MP's or those interested in Politics. It has also carried the Party confrences in full, it is similar to the ITV Regional News websites set up for MP's.

The only times I have watched it is when they showed the 1979 Election and when you can get full uninterrupted coverage of the commons when something decent happens, e.g. Purple powder hitting Tony Blair.

It was originally The Parliamentary Channel, which was owned by Flextech, but it got pulled and the BBC stepped in with Parliament. TBH as you would guess there is very little difference between the two.