A couple of friends came over and we watched the British election results last night: 3 LibDem voters, one Labour (me. Reasons given in assorted blogs; if t here had been a chance of defeating the Tory, I'd have voted LibDem. The one advantage of a "safe" seat: you can vote for absolutely anyone you want, knowing it makes no difference."

The BBC exit poll suggested a hung parliament, with the LibDems losing seats. That was at 10 PM last night. It's now a little after 2 PM, Friday, and the exit poll of a sample of constituencies has been very accurate - they predicted 309 Tory, 55 LibDem. I don't remember Labour's predicted number of seats. We still don't know the exact figures.

Lembit Opik, LibDem, lost his seat. That saddens me. He added to the general gayety of Public Life. Of Estonian (Lithuanian?) descent, he lived with his mother and dated a Cheeky Girl. He appeared on quiz shows and was funny. We still have Boris Johnson and Many Mandelson. Opik was harmless, a totally benign figure. The other two aren't but I'd still hate to lose them. What would life be like without Mad Boris Johnson's hair waving in the wind while he says something preposterous? No, he hasn't been good for London. But it was the Tory's Turn to be Mayor, and there are a lot of Conservatives that would have been worse. Mandy, clever and devious, Labour's own éminence gris. He's like a Disney serpent - you know you shouldn't trust it, but it's so elegant and shiny and it hisses so seductively. He is the master of the multiple subtext. If Many said it was raining, and Paxman and the rest looked out the window and saw it was raining, they'd still wonder what particular Mandy plot the observation was intended to serve.

A properly moral ethical political activist of the left would disapprove and dislike Mandelson and Johnson, but I can't bring myself to do so, which probably shows defective moral fiber on my part.

So there is no single political party that can control parliament. The Conservatives can say we've got the most votes and the most MP's. True. They took about 36% of the vote. Labour can claim that the progressive vote (Labour, LibDem, Green, some other small parties left of Labour) took 53% of the popular vote. Yes, Labour was rejected. No, Cameron and Conservative policies were not embraced. Best possible scenario, as far as I'm concerned: Cameron becomes prime minister, the worst of the economic policies proposed by Cameron are blocked, some others go through. Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats agree on the worst of cuts and insist that this is not a matter for party politics.

We've had a real geographical divide in this election. England south of Watford is Blue; Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are not. Northwest and Northeast England have Conservative and Lib Dem MP's, but they are still Labour Heartland. The Southwest of England provides the LibDem base, and that's remained fairly steady. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also have a greater percentage of the work force in public services than England. Will a political party be willing to throw money at these areas to get their votes? England will not be pleased to lose 25% of their teachers, doctors and police if the same does not occur elsewhere. LibDem support: what will they demand? Proportional representation - the Conservative grass roots will not accept that. Giving up Tridant? Increased taxation for the wealthy? The Conservatives ran on a budget offering tax cuts to the rich and public service cuts (called efficiencies) to the rest. Very interesting times to come, and we know what the Chinese say about interesting times.

So we shall see what we shall see.

Now I am going to take a long nap and then read Little Women and Werewolves which just arrived in the post. I shall not think of politics until Channel 4 News at 7. Or, if Little Women and Werewolves is as good as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies I may ignore politics until tomorrow.