Britishness

Is turning over to BBC2 at midnight and finding a by-election results programme. The eccentric interest in the political issues of an obscure constituency; the pointlessness of the live reporting from a municipal sports hall in the early hours; the timelessness of the results' analysis (i.e. the "massive" swing to Labour/the Lib Dems/the SNP that lasts until, well, the next general election).