The drama of election night: a critical guide
In a bumper year for voting, elections are the top-billing show
A car drives down a road in drizzly central London, taking a besuited man home from a meeting. It is a mundane image, transmuted into spectacle by the alchemy of elections. Tracked in the sort of aerial footage normally reserved for felons on the run, the car conveyed Sir Keir Starmer to Downing Street from Buckingham Palace, where, at the king’s invitation, he became Britain’s new prime minister on July 5th.
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This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The drama of democracy”
From the July 13th 2024 edition
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