Why I'm Backing The Campaign To "Save Election Night"

More and more councils up and down the country are considering shifting their general election count to the Friday evening. Moving the count from the Thursday to the Friday is something I am very much opposed to.

It is quite right that the verdict of the people, up and down the country, is known as soon as possible. As Karl Popper famously said, in Great Britain, election day is "judgement day" and it is part of the drama of election day that results are known that evening. Making election results as accessible as possible should be crucial and that means having thc count on Thursday nights, when more people are able to watch them.

For this reason, I'm opposing the backward step of moving counts to the Friday and joining the campaign established by a cross party group of bloggers to "save election night". You can read more about the campaign here and join the Facebook group here.

I'm delighted to say that North Durham will be counting on the Thursday night. Here's hoping that will be replicated around the country.