Election - morning after


Well it has all been rather exciting. We are to have a hung Parliament with the Conservative party having won the most seats but not an overall majority. Contrary to the talk of a Liberal Democrat revival on the back of Nick Clegg's performance in the TV debates, it seems that the LibDems have actually won fewer seats than at the last election.

In my own constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup, where Ted Heath and Derek Conway have been our MPs since I came here in 1997, James Brokenshire (Con) has been elected. Worryingly, the BNP increased their share of the vote here, but Nick Griffin was soundly defeated in Barking, coming third. Interestingly, he said that with a "normal" turnout, the BNP would have taken the Council. Whether that is true or not, they may well have won more wards in the local election if there had been a smaller turnout. This is an important lesson for those who did not bother to vote.

Twitter is buzzing after Nick Clegg's statement a short while ago that the Tories should have the chance to form a government; Labour are offering proposals for electoral reform; David Cameron is going to make a statement at 2.30pm later in response to Nick Clegg. There will be earnest negotiations over the next few hours and perhaps days. One commentator said that there would be a lot of pencil sucking at Buckingham Palace.

An important part of the story is that in several constituencies, people were unable to vote because the queues were too long at 10pm when polling stopped. Given the good conduct of our elections generally, this is a severe embarrassment.

The best news of the day for me so far is that Evan "Dr Death" Harris, the pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia former MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, has (narrowly) lost his seat. I would be interested to hear of any other news on the pro-life front. I am not optimistic but with a number of new faces being elected, I pray that there may be some hope for the unborn, the elderly and for families.

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