Election Day

So today is the big day. Britain has gone to the polls to decide who should lead the country for the next few years.

I went round to the polling station after getting back home from work. It was very quick and easy, and I was out again in less than 2 minutes. In the UK you vote to elect your local Member of Parliament (MP) and whichever party has the majority of MPs will form the next Government. If the polls are to be believed, and frankly they’re not, but if they are right then we could be heading to a position where no one party will have enough MPs to command a majority. This could lead to all sorts of pacts and alliances between various political parties or even a second General Election in the near future. But that’s all for another day.

This campaign has been defined by the TV debates – the first ever in the UK. Before the campaign kicked off it was thought that this would be the “internet election”, but the debates have so captured the public imagination that it has turned out to be very much a TV campaign. And it is because of the debates that this looks like being one of the closest elections in the last 40 years.

The results will come in from all over the country overnight, and Dori and I are planning to stay awake for as long as we can to watch the drama unfold. It could be a very long night!