ABSTRACT
After the polling was over in most parts of the country there were elections in twenty-three seats in north-west England and in Scotland, where the voting was postponed because 5 July coincided with the traditional trades holidays, wakes, or fairs of these towns. General public interest in these elections was slight outside the towns themselves, and the public settled down to speculate and wait for the results. Never before had there been so long a delay. In 1918 in somewhat similar conditions there had been a delay of fourteen days between the polling and the count, to allow time for the soldiers’ votes to come in. Normally, as we have seen, more than two hundred results are declared and broadcast on the night of the poll. In 1945 there were three weeks for meditation, and the result of most people’s meditation was the same, nor was there any sign that estimates altered during the period, except for some decline of optimism in the Conservative press after their first assurances of victory on the morrow of election day.
