3.25pm The BBC's swing man saying Margaret Thatcher's hardline on immigration killed the National Front.
2.45pm Jack Straw in 1979...
2.40pm: There was nothing subtle about the way the BBC greeted Jeremy Thorpe's defeat in North Devon:
1.25pm: Asked if he'd accept a seat in Mrs Thatcher's Cabinet Ted Heath responds "depends". He disagreed with Mrs Thatcher's policy on Scottish devolution and never joined her government. The Great Sulk followed.
1.15pm Mrs T retains her Finchley seat:
1pm: A rare Tory casualty of the night was Teddy Taylor who lost his Scottish seat and missed the opportunity to move from being Shadow Scottish Secretary to the real thing (the Tories did relatively poorly in Scotland in a taste of worse times to come):
11.40am: The BBC calls it for Britain's first woman Prime Minister:
10.45am It's striking how important "prices" were to voters in '79:
***
The BBC Parliament Channel is rebroadcasting the Corporation's coverage of the 1979 General Election.
Nothing much to report yet except...
Robin Day smoking a cigar in the BBC studio.
All of the BBC reporters at the various counts have been men although Angela Rippon is in the HQ studio to provide periodic updates.
Frank Bough talking about "old biddies" getting confused about their voting slips.
A Gallup poll for the BBC reminds us that Tory policies were more popular than Mrs T herself...
