The 1997 General Election Drinking Game
This game must be played whilst watching the BBC’s coverage on the night. Decide beforehand how much alcohol each ‘penalty’ is worth, depending on an estimate of your personal drinking prowess. Traditionally, one penalty is one ‘finger’ of beer, milk or whatever you intend to see the night through with (an eighth of a pint for men, a tenth for women), but given the potentially vast amounts of booze involved here it might be wise to stick to one ‘sip’ per penalty. Enjoy.
The Results
These ‘On the spot’ penalties apply when each individual result graphic appears:
| Lab Gain | 1 penalty |
| LibDem Gain | 2 penalties |
| Tory Gain | 4 penalties |
| ‘Other’ Gain | 4 penalties |
...And these penalties are to be drunk as each party reaches one of the following ‘landmark’ totals (n.b. 330 seats is a majority of 1) :
| Seats won: | 20 | 50 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 330 | 350 | 380 | 430 | 480 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Con. | - | - | 2 | 4 | 8 | 16 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Lab. | - | - | 2 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 24 | 28 |
| LibDem. | 4 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 |
| Single ‘Other’ | 12 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
The Statistics
| Peter Snow appears. | 1 |
| The Swingometer / "Poll of polls." | 2 |
| Extrapolates results to whole House. | 2 |
| House of Commons fills with ‘Toilet door’ figures | 3 |
| Any daft graphic; e.g. Prime ministers in a hole, | 3 |
| Campaign buses in a ditch, "Whose behind the door of No. 10?" etc. | 4 |
The Locations
| Huntingdon / Sedgefield / Yeovil | 2 |
| Millbank Tower / Central Office / No. 10 | 3 |
| Sunderland North / Sunderland South | 4 |
| Bootle / Basildon / Tatton | 4 |
Cock-ups
| Any TV blunder; e.g. VT unavailable, Tape seen cueing up, Presenter speaks to wrong camera Loss of picture/sound/contact with OB unit, Dead air, etc. | 3 |
| Graphic shows wrong result. | 4 |
| Microphones pick up any comment obviously not intended for broadcast. | 4 |
| Anyone seen on the verge of tears. | 4 |
| Any Tory politician refuses to admit they’re losing when they obviously are. | 4 |
| Any BBC journalist fails to contain their glee at Labour success. | 5 |
Soundbites
| Sleaze. | 2 |
| Tactical voting. | 2 |
| Exit poll. | 2 |
| Margin of error. | 2 |
| Landslide. | 2 |
| Millennium. | 2 |
| Floating Voter. | 3 |
| Historic victory. | 3 |
| Unprecedented 5th term of office. | |
| Essex man. | 4 |
| Since the war. | 4 |
| Margaret Thatcher | 6 |
by Robin
