Advent 18

For a night of engrossing television you can't beat a close run general election. We had one this year which gloriously confounded the smug pollsters. However my favourite was 1992 which saw two relative mediocrities, Major and Kinnock, competing to be Prime Minister. Rather as happened with Ed Miliband (remember him) the country finally couldn't see its way clear to having Kinnock as first minister. He has always struck me as the political leader with whom it would be most tolerable to have a beer. I've attached a sample of the BBC coverage (with the trumpeting of the gash exit poll) but there's all sorts of election clips on YouTube which might take your fancy. A particular gem is an interview with Ken Livingstone and Jeremy Corbyn offering their diagnosis of why Labour lost. They were as barking then as they are now and Red Ken as snide as he remains. One rather gets the feeling that Corbyn is by far the nicer man.