Swingometer | Remembering election nights with the pollster's favourite pendulum
Decision '79
Swingometer banter from 1979 with the irrepressible Bob McKenzie.
CHANNEL | BBC 1
FIRST BROADCAST | 03 May 1979
DURATION | 1 minutes 17 seconds
FIRSTBROADCAST
1979
Synopsis
Election night rookie David Dimbleby attempts to diffuse Professor Robert McKenzie's partisan support for the swingometer, while David Butler weighs in with a vote for the computer during this coverage of the 1979 general election.
Did you know?
At this stage of the 1979 proceedings, the landslide victory for Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives was not yet apparent, with only a 4.5% swing to the right being forecast by this point in the evening. This was David Dimbleby's first stint as the main anchor for the BBC's election night coverage and, sadly, was Robert McKenzie's last election appearance before his death.
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