Signing off

This will be the last post of the night due to a combination of tiredness and overindulgence. Surprise gain for the Lib Dems from the Tories in Solihull was nice, and I was also very heartened by Green showings in West Ham (19%), Brighton Pavilion (22%), Deptford (12%) and Norwich South (7.5%). Also the Lib Dems have held Brent East. Just waiting for the Michael Howard result... God, the returning officer here is cheesy. He sounds like he's about to drop dead. Lib Dems got about 15,000... that's probably not enough. "Peace and Progress" got 22... that's almost as bad as the 'Renaissance Democrat' who got 7 (seven) votes in 1997. Michael Howard got 26,000 votes - HOW? Who voted for this schmuck? Labour about 6,000. So there we are... Michael Howard will survive and given the fact that he has cut the Labour majority by about 100, he will almost certainly be carrying on to the next election (health permitting...) and given that according to the pollsters, he was seen as too old this time round, how the hell is he going to cut it next time round? Michael is delivering his speech, saying 'if Mr Blair does deliver... he will have my support'. Is this an overture for the National Government? Maybe Tony Blair will be the Ramsay McDonald of the 2010s. And on that note, it's time to sign off, drink up the whiskey, and think about how the hell I will get up tomorrow to post an 'epitaph' to this blog. That may have to wait until Saturday... but thanks a lot to everybody who's stuck with reading this, and thanks for all the comments. And I hope you've enjoyed the campaign and this blog.