Hartlepool

Dave seems to be the first blogger to have blogged the projected result, but there's all sorts of strangeness going on there it seems. First, we hear Labour have won by around 2000 votes, with Simon Hughes (part of the BBC pundit panel) calculating a 22.5% swing. Then, all the attention switched to the Tory/UKIP battle for third with talk of a recount, but there's the question of whether you can have a recount when it's not to determine the winner or if someone's kept their deposit. Then the talks to a recount for first and second...and now Adam Boulton on Sky (I'm channel flicking) says the Tories are 150 votes behind UKIP.

And in the channel flicking, BBC Two's late night film is called Hoodlum Empire, which isn't a documentary about the streets of Hartlepool and one man's drive, powered solely by the forces of localism, to rid the town of yobs.

It seems the recount for third place is now underway. More when I hear it, but hopefully it'll be all over by 2am in time for the first Bush/Kerry debate.

Update: OK, here comes the result. Let's see if I can type fast enough to get it down.

Abrams 41 English Democrats
Allison 3193 UKIP
Berriman 90 Independent
Bloom 572 Respect
Carroll 45 Independent
Dunn 10719 Lib Dem
Watson 139 Fathers 4 Justice
Harriot 95 Socialist Labour
Hope 80 Monster Raving Loony
Middleton 3044 Conservative
Rogers 91 Common Good
Ryder 255 Green
Starkey 246 National Front
Wright 12752 Labour

Labour Majority 2033, UKIP 3rd, Tories 4th, swing about 20% I think.

Update 2: From a look at the previous result, and the swings as reported by Sky News (18.8%) the Tory vote does seem to have dropped from 20% to 10%, but that's almost entirely gone to UKIP rather than the Liberal Democrats, it seems.

I just missed it while flicking but it seems one of the F4J people has just thrown powder over Jody Dunn while she was making her speech. Twats.