UK election night

No, I am not going to discuss the results of the UK election. However I am going to talk about the experience of watching it on TV. My new cable company does carry BBC and it is quite treat for me to watch how the results are announced in discussed in England. The best part is when constituency results are announced. Well, not all of them as the are 600+ and the whole night would not be enough. However every few minutes some result is announced. Every time, on some form of stage with or without a lectern, with or without some fancy background with the coat of arms of some city or institution, most or all of the candidates are standing side by side while some local authority announces the vote tally. The losers do not go as far as congratulating the winner, but at least they are there, validating the exercise, demonstrating that votes are gained by door to door canvassing, no matter who is in 10, Downing Street. Fascinating....

Here in Venezuela, when El Supremo claims his victory we have some rowdy crowd in front of Miraflores and some near vulgar to very vulgar celebratory speech. Before El Supremo it was at least slightly more different as the supremitos of the time were not allowed to run for reelection and were not heard of on election night. In particular when their horse lost the race.

We have a lot more to learn about democracy...

And then people wonder how come I like more and more parliamentary systems of government. I am going to end up developing skin rash at presidential systems.

PS 1: As I write this I read that Wimbledon went from Labor to Conservative. Wimbledon was Labour? I suppose it is their version of Gauche Caviar :-)

PS 2: On another note, you can see the BBC interactive web site to follow UK elections. I have never seen something as complete, thorough, and fun to watch even if you have nothing at stake in a given election. Light years away of what we could expect to see on ABN or MinCi. We are primitive indeed.