Now what indeed. I stayed up until gone 5am this morning to watch the election unfold and the first thing to say is that the exit polls were far more accurate than anyone, other than the polling companies, believed. It appeared that there was far more Lib Dem support than there actually was - a chastening experience for all concerned. The second thing is clear is that this is one of the worst performances performance by a Labour party in a generation. The final thing is that the Tories couldn't do it, they might have the most votes and seats in parliament but given all their advantages they just couldn't pull off what would have been one of the greatest achievements in modern politics. They don't have anything like a majority, let alone a working majority.
So now what? Well the first thing that will happen is that all the parties will start to implode under their own internal contradictions. Already the right wing are taking large swings at David Cameroon under what can only be seen as a very strange perspective. A moderate Tory platform was not able to win then they must make sure that any deal strongly disadvantages any other party they may want to make a deal with and then no doubt go to the country in the autumn. This may well happen and god help the Tories if this is the way it is played out.
The Lib Dems have similar voices but from the other end of the political spectrum. No deal with Cameron will be their battle cry forgetting that they actually didn't do that well in this election. Purity rather putting the country first. Is this really the change that the country wants?
Finally the Labour party are making some very strange noises in a desperate attempt to hold onto power. I have just seen Jack Dromey argue that the big losers last night were the Conservatives - even though they won the largest share of the vote and seats. This sort of mindset beggars belief.
The one scenario that hasn't been mentioned at the moment is a Labour/Conservative pact. Crazy? Never say never in politics but it would take a Greek style implosion of the financial position to force such a thing to come about and I don't believe that things are as bad as some in the media would like you to believe. So not a likely outcome.
So now what? I hope there will be a lot of deep breaths and time for some sleep. The media will want to make a big fuss to try and make a story when there isn't one - not yet anyway. The full results won't be known until the end of today, in fact not until the end of the month due to late death of a candidate. All the leaders will make every effort not to commit themselves too much as they try and feel their way through this whole process. It probably won't be until the mid part of next week when some form of government may start to really coalesce. There will be a huge amount of macho posturing over the next few days but much of the hot air is coming from people who claim to speck on behalf of the ordinary party members/voters forgetting that the voters have just spoken and basically told the politicians to grow up and move on from clear majority politics. Even if there is another election in the autumn I doubt that the result will be much different than it is now. However, what the hell do I know?
Simon Marchini LRPS
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini
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