A vote against fun

HOW STRANGE to watch votes slowly drift in the day after an election, knowing there is still another day to go before we will get a conclusive result.

Even as a child I found election nights fascinating and when I became a journalist and actually got to cover them on the ground, they were downright thrilling, as I chased reluctant candidates around conference centres at 3am sustained by nothing more than endless cans of Diet Coke and an inaccurate exit poll.

In more recent years it has been snacks, wine and late nights in front of the telly and Twitter, the excitement as much about who got what wrong, as to what the result might be.

This year, of course, all that has been suspended because of the pandemic. Whatever happens, let’s hope the suspension of election night fun is purely a one-off.