Oh Bugger.

The Election is over, although as I write this there are still 38 seats still to declare, but it looks like we have a hung parliament, which means that both Brown and Cameron will no doubt be courting Clegg for his support.The results do, however, through up the issues with our first past the post system.

At present, the position is this:
Conservatives 36% of the vote = 44% of the seats
Labour 29% of the vote = 37% of the seats
LibDem 23% of the vote = 8% of the seats

Which doesn't really seem right.

Hopefully, even if we end up with Cameron as PM (which would appear the most likely outcome) his need for support from the LibDems may mean we get electoral reform.

Of course, we are also likely to get massive cuts to public services, great steps backwards in terms of Human Rights protection, equality (both in terms of gap between rich and poor, and in terms of equal rights for everyone regardless of gender, sexuality, disability etc).

All I can find to say this morning is that I suppose it could have been worse. At least the BNP & their slightly less racist far-right moron friends in UKip didn't win anywhere.

It's pretty cold comfort.

And yes, 'my' MP, got back in with just over 50% of the vote. In a way, I mind that less, because I knew it was almost inevitable, whereas I had greater hopes for the election as a whole.

In addition, there is the outrage of people being denied their vote because of a larger than anticipated turnout. I have seem some comments on Twitter etc that they have only themselves to balmse for leaving it to the last minute, but from what I can gather, in many cases people had been queuing for well over an hour, only to be turned away becuase they hadn't reached the front of the queue by 10 p.m. I have voted in every single election, local and general, that I've been eleigable for, (over almost 20 years, now) and I have never had to wait for more than a few minutes - it would never occur to me that if I went to my polling station at 9 p.m. I might not get in by 10, and might be unable to vote, and I dount anyone else would have expected that either.