RoverAndOut

It's hard to maintain objective interest in something when it causes so much personal pain. I stayed up late into the night for things like Swinson because it's what you do on election night: the shocks, the moments, history happening before your eyes. But, really, I wanted to go to bed at 10.05 - John Curtice is never out by much. I'm glad someone's stepped up to run it in your stead. I can try to derive some pleasure by choosing 65 of them to get rid of over the next 5 years.

Don't give up! One of these parliaments has got to last the full 5 years...surely?

Now for the Cosmonauts: Two dead this year, including one today. 5 Soviets left from this era, including 2 involved in original cosmonaut training.

With today's news thought it was time to comprehensively update this list and bring it back into a more prominent position for people's use. First the Americans: Down to just 4 moonwalkers, 8 moon travellers and 3 other early astronauts left. Youngest is 83, oldest is 91. It'll be a busy decade!

Agreed about Skinner. And Corbyn. And McDonnell. But 42 MPs have already announced they won't be seeking re-election next time around, and the oldest 20 of those have an average age of nearly 71. So plenty of oldies on their way and there'll be more to follow I'd imagine. Only 32 deaths in the past 22 years, compared to 62 in the previous 18. Plus it's hard to build up a head of steam in this game when there's an election every 3 years.

This Parliament will fall before Christmas. Once the October 31st cliff edge is cleared one way or the other, the opposition will give Boris his election. Can't believe there's only been one scoring hit in this pool in 2 and a half years. There have been at least 41 changes of party allegiance in this Parliament but none have led to a by election. Death is becoming less of a factor, probably due to improved healthcare and younger MPs. It seems in future, appointments or elections for other posts are more likely causes of by elections: Regional Mayor, Police and Crime Commissioner, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly... To illustrate the point, here's a rough breakdown of the last 10 Parliaments according to reasons for by elections: 1979-1983: 20 by elections, 15 deaths, 2 new roles, 1 party change, 2 others 1983-1987: 31 by elections, 11 deaths, 5 new roles (15 Northern Ireland Unionists had by elections in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, all but one re-elected) 1987-1992: 24 by elections, 20 deaths, 4 new roles, 1992-1997: 18 by elections, 16 deaths, 2 new roles 1997-2001: 17 by elections, 10 deaths, 5 new roles, 2 others 2001-2005: 6 by elections, 4 deaths, 2 new roles 2005-2010: 14 by elections, 8 deaths, 2 new roles, 4 others 2010-2015: 21 by elections, 6 deaths, 6 new roles, 2 party changes, 7 others 2015-2017: 10 by elections, 3 deaths, 4 new roles, 3 others 2017-2019: 5 by elections, 1 death, 2 recalls, 1 new role, 1 other Things to consider for the next round. And as Biblio says, there's going to be a febrile atmosphere and the potential for more upheaval to come.

Nearly 3 months without progress but an EU leader has died! Gets me a third category and Fixed Business and GC a second. Toast and Time get a second EU Leader. This one's taking a while to play out!

Nobody appears to have noted that nearly half the goals (5) that Keith scored were scored...by Keith.

I suppose if you've spent a lifetime surviving having your head pounded and lights punched out, a bit of old age, Parkinson's and dementia is nothing.

Seriously? 3 and a half months in and DI can already win? Not good enough Biblio, sort it out.

Let's go with John McCain.

Just popped up on the Play-off Final - he's at Wembley. Looks pretty frail and old now...like most 94 year olds I suppose. Think Prince Phillip looked better at the Royal Wedding though, and he's got 3 years on Deadly...

Somehow in all the excitement, I missed the fact that Charles Neville had died. So not the first hit of Scavenger Hunt Bingo 2.0 but an early hit nonetheless! And already the field is shortening...could be much shorter than the last one - or go on for even longer. Love the Scavenger Hunt!

We sent shit far further that Pluto in the late 1970s , that's nothing new. If you think there's nothing to learn by going to the moon then I must courteously disagree with you. We've spent 154 hours on the moon's surface - that's less than a week to explore a surface area the size of Asia. Staring through a telescope and examining samples can only tell us so much - at some point you need to go and actually explore. Establishing a colony on the moon may not sound ambitious in the age of Operation Mars, but why not? Humans, permanently living off Earth. Somewhere you can make a round trip to in a week. I'm not saying it's likely to happen, but there's no reason why it shouldn't. At some point in the distant future, I can see our descendants saying "Imagine if they'd actually bothered to go back sooner..."

Surprised you haven't mentioned the first British F1 Champion, Mike Hawthorn. Won the championship in 1958 then retired because he didn't want to die racing cars. Died 3 months later on the A3. And of course Sir Frank Williams, paralysed since a crash on his way back from Paul Ricard in 1986.