Tony Roe column: My memories of covering General Elections for TV

When you turn up to witness the votes being counted it’s nearly always in a cavernous sports hall filled with trestle tables.

Sitting on one side are the good people preparing to stay awake all night to count the ballot papers. Parading past them on the outside will be the rosetted party workers gazing hopefully at the anonymous crosses.

Beyond the tables hover the journalists looking for early clues…which candidate is smiling, who is glum?

The outcome is part of the big picture which decides the future direction of the country so it’s a privilege to see a count take place on election night.

In 1992 I got to cover three… all in different parts of the East Midlands. This was the election Labour had been hoping and expecting to win. The one remembered by the clip of Neil Kinnock at an election eve rally repeating “We’re alright”.

I started in Lincoln which counted quickly. Labour didn’t win the seat from the Conservative incumbent as the polls had predicted. So then I was sent to Corby, another marginal which Labour was expected to

win. I listened to results coming in from around the country. As I drove by the Oakham turn off on the deserted A1 the Tory Chairman, Chris Patten, was defeated. The General Election outcome was still uncertain.

I arrived in Corby just in time to see the result declared …the Conservative squeaked in with a majority of a little over 300. I’d seen the story of the night in two results. John Major would still be Prime Minister.

There was still time to race to Hinckley for a third result. Too much of a race…the police stopped me for speeding but luckily treated me kindly. I missed the result but managed to get there before the winning Conservative candidate went home.

1992 was the election where Labour was expected to win after 13 years of Conservative rule but didn’t. But polling is more accurate now.

We’re in 1997 territory, at least, this time around.