The First Hung Parliament

Yesterday i spent ten minutes walking around a Primary school trying to find the way in so that i could cast my vote, as a first time voter i've been watching the 2010 general election live TV debates, they've actually been fairly interesting, Cameron and Brown spent the entire time throwing comments back and fourth and Clegg, who i hadn't even heard of before, was the only politician who actually seemed to answer anything.

I had two votes, one for the overall general election and one for the local council and after thinking about it for a while i voted differently on both.

The conclusion today was that the UK now faces the first hung parliament since 1974!

I'm actually pretty happy, i'd talked it over with friends and said that i thought this would happen, either way, the results were always going to be good providing there was no outright win for Labour, 16 years and they've done...not exactly nothing, but very little.
I've grown up under a Labour government and I think the UK is more than ready for a change!

BBC official results:

-The Tories defeated Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik in Montgomeryshire on a gigantic 13% swing, and won the symbolic seat of Basildon. But they did not win Gedling, Tooting and Bolton North East from Labour, all key targets, and failed to unseat Schools Secretary Ed Balls in Morley & Outwood.

- Two former Labour home secretaries lost their seats. Jacqui Smith was defeated at Redditch by the Tories on a mighty swing of 9.2%, while Charles Clarke lost to the Liberal Democrats in Norwich South.

- Esther Rantzen failed to win Luton South, the seat being held by Labour. Independent MP for Wyre Forest, Dr Richard Taylor, lost his seat to the Conservatives. BNP leader Nick Griffin was roundly defeated at Barking where Labour's Margaret Hodge increased her majority.

- The Green Party won their first ever seat in parliament when Caroline Lucas took Brighton Pavilion from Labour.

- In a shock result from Northern Ireland, First Minister Peter Robinson has been defeated in Belfast East by the Alliance Party.

I thought these pictures did a pretty good job of summing up UK politics:

okay in all fairness, it had been a long, long night.