I think, along with 1997 and 1945 this will go down as a truly seismic election night whose consequences will be just as far reaching as both those general elections.
The Tories have demonstrated that this nation's voters are conservative with a small 'c' and whether you admire or revile George Osborne it's difficult to escape from the fact that he's engineered what appears to be a master stroke of timing with the economy; whether it's a sleight of hand or not, remains to be seen. Cameron, as incumbent Prime Minster always oozed palpably more statesmanship than Miliband, which will have assisted the Tories cause greatly. He's in for a testing second term though. The right wing of his party is populated by an odious bunch of cunts and with such a small majority, they will hold a bit more of the whip hand than the last parliament when they were kept in check by the Lib Dem voting block.
Labour are potentially staring into the abyss. In all probability without that rump of Scottish MPs they will be virtually unelectable for the next decade as the economy continues to grow. They've got a lot of big decisions to make. Shift to the left and 'virtually' becomes 'completely' - and they need to guard against this imo. The bare facts are that most people in this country who engage with the electoral process either are, or consider themselves to be middle class. This is an inescapable mathematical truth which they forget at their peril. Their next leader needs to be chosen wisely.
I'm hugely disappointed about the Lib Dem return, which I expected to be nearer the 25 mark. I felt they did the right thing in 2010 and have played a part in curtailing the worst excesses of the Tories. They also had a lot of good constituency MPs who've lost their seats. This country needs a broad range of political parties and I really hope that this setback doesn't consign the party to a period of political irrelevance like they suffered in the middle of the last century. It's possible they could shift significantly to the left to fill the gap potentially left by Labour. I certainly don't blame Clegg for going into coalition with the Tories. Anyone who does fails to appreciate what ultimately motivates politicians: power. To expect a politician not to seize such an opportunity is like expecting a City fan not to smile when united get beat.
UKIP have peaked as a political force imo, but they also might be able to fill the gap left by a Labour shift to the right. Appealing to the disenfranchised white working classes is something they've latched onto to some effect more recently and a tactic they may well try to develop further going forward. Their pitiful return in terms of the number of seats compared to the number of votes they garnered is a shameful indictment on an electoral system which is both anachronistic and undemocratic. The EU referendum could, whichever way it goes, prove to be a pivotal moment in the downwards decline of the party, however.
The SNP are huge winners, obviously. They'll get pretty much anything they want short of independence from the Tories. It suits both their agendas. Notwithstanding that, I believe the fault lines in the Union are so pronounced now that full blown independence is inevitable within a decade. There will be significant pressure from the people both nations to effectuate that in the coming years, especially from Scotland when the price of oil starts to rise again.
As to me, what will the next five years hold? I'll be better of financially, of that I'm pretty certain. I've had a few tough years in that regard and I've really started to come out the other side in the last twelve months. I fully expect that to continue under a Conservative government, as I believe they are discernibly better at running the economy than Labour.
That doesn't mean I'm happy with the outcome, however. I believe in positively engaging with Europe and there are too many people in the Tory party who are fundamentally at odds with me on this. Their right wing is populated by deeply unpleasant people who are a complete anathema to my liberal outlook on life and the world. Primarily, however, I want to be part of a country at ease with itself. There will always be people doing better than others: that is the nature of human affairs, but those that are doing well have a duty to try and help those less fortunate than themselves. We are a wealthy country and the social care we provide for those less fortunate should reflect that. I believe this is something which Conservatives simply fail to accept or appreciate sufficiently. Maybe I'm a left wing Tory at heart, but that doesn't mean I could ever bring myself to vote for them. Too many cunts by far.
Whatever I think, it's going to be an interesting five years. To think, five years ago we hadn't won a trophy for 34 years.
How time flies.