May 2010: The Election Blog

By May 7th we can all stop pretending to be interested in the General Election and get back to recording our private conversations about the bigoted pensioners of Rochdale. So quite why The Election Blog is the the Blog of the Month for May is anyone's guess. But it is. So there.

The Election Blog is "loosely edited" by Elliott Fox. Mr Fox set up the blog "to try and talk about the elections while avoiding the party leaders and poll-faced news." Incredibly, it manages to be quite refreshing. Not a Brown, Clegg or Cameron in sight. For the last gasps of the campaign The Election Blog "will be interviewing behind-the-scenes actors of these elections: journos and pundits, party operatives, unknown candidates and some people who hardly have anything to do with the elections at all." You've got to love the sound of the people in that last category. 
 
So what do we have so far? Well, you can spend an afternoon on the campaign trail with 22-year-old Adam McGibbon, the youngest candidate in the election. Find out about comedy writer Charlie Skelton's Alternative Election Night on Channel 4. And even enjoy an interview with an ex-senator from Bolivia who's crashing in the editor's living room.

This is a light and pleasing blog that somehow finds a new angle on the election. And it's all the better for having nothing to do (so far) with Newsnight, Nick Robinson, Radio 4, the BBC, Adam Boulton, Kirsty Wark, SKY News, Jeremy Paxman, Radio 5, John Humphries, John Pienaar, Kay Burley ... 


30 April 2010