Interesting times indeed.

A long time ago I worked with a chap who was very fond of the saying 'Be careful what you wish for it may come true', he would use this at any opportunity and would apply the term to mean good and bad thereby allowing it to fit most situations. Thinking that I had long forgotten about this phrase it suddenly appeared in my head during the early hours of the morning of the 7th May whilst I was taking the occasional opportunity to keep up with the incoming general election results. Despite mentioning my doubt in the last Blog entry about the actual outcome being a hung parliament that is what has occurred.

I must genuinely offer my congratulations to David Cameron for now being the leader of the party with the most seats, though not enough to form a majority government. My commiserations to Nick Clegg who I think actually started to believe both the propaganda from the media and his own inflated ideas of suddenly how popular he had become. Sadly, for him anyway, he now has five MP's less than he had a few short days ago so it has not been a good time for him or his party and perhaps a salutary lesson of not to believe everything he hears or reads during the run up to an election. My commiserations also go to Gordon Brown; though the Labour party has fallen to second place behind the Tories he also does not have enough seats to form a majority government.

There has been much criticism of Brown mainly headed by the media who seems to have at times a selective memory when it suits them. One of the much flaunted complaints, for example, is that taking over from Tony Blair mid-term as leader of the Labour party made him an unelected Prime Minister. Strange then that the same media forget that John Major who took over from Margaret Thatcher mid-term in November 1990 as leader of the Conservative party and thus became Prime Minister in exactly the same situation. It was to be another two years until John Major called a general election in April 1992, but I do not recall the media ever hounding him as an unelected Prime Minister. Two-faced contempt is the basic method of operation for many newspapers: monotonous newsprint filled with selective reporting and audacious bias. the popular press is a hopelessly poisoned chalice in which our politicians seem resigned to exist in.

Of the 91 seats lost by the Labour party I know there will be genuine sadness at some of the good honest and hard working MP's becoming a casualty, however there are others who are now going who frankly will not be missed and little sympathy should be spared for them. Jacqui Smith falls perhaps partly due to the expenses scandal. The first ever woman to hold the post of Home Secretary she will not be missed. Charles Clarke, yet another ex Home Secretary has been shown the door from his Norwich South seat. The problem Clarke has is his attitude, during his final months in parliament he has been a vocal critic of Gordon Brown, now that may be his right to disagree or oppose anything his political leader says but it should not be aired like dirty laundry in public, it does him [Clarke] no good as he is marked as a moaning and bitter backbencher having lost his cabinet post, it does Gordon Brown no good as being seen to have members of his own party sniping at him in public and it does the party as a whole no good. If Clarke did not like his lot then he could leave at any time, another one not to be missed. Then there are those who have not awaited their fate at the hands of the public and have fallen on their sword. Hoon and Hewitt are two who readily spring to mind and in the overall plan of things they will not be missed either.

So where do we stand at the moment. Well neither of the two main parties have enough seats to form a government. I know there are many Labour supporters who would never vote Tory but who thought to punish Gordon Brown by voting Lib Dem the result being that the Labour vote fell. So few voters agreed with the Lib Dem manifesto and policy that they have lost five seats, maybe that shows how popular [or not] proportional representation may really be with the public and though David Cameron has indeed climbed a mountain and came home with a very creditable and worthwhile result he is still short of twenty seats and now needs to find other minority parties to join with to push him over the 326 seats required to form a government and mean time the country is now in a state of limbo.

The best option [at the time of writing] is for the Tories to agree a deal with Lib Dems but by doing so in some perverse way the country has lost it's democracy. We the electorate listen to the politicians then decide who we might support on the strength of who promises what. It is open, it is above board, we know what we are being told then we make an informed decision and we vote. However, now for example, with David Cameron and Nick Clegg talking to each other in an attempt to agree a deal; future policy is now being decided and agreed in private and in secret, we the voter do not now know what is being agreed, we are not being consulted. If Cameron and Clegg do agree some deal there will be some mutual policy shift between the two parties. There could be the situation where some people who voted Conservative feel cheated as they find perhaps some of the policies they voted on have been watered down or disappeared completely. Lib Dem supporters may think themselves lucky that after coming third and losing five seats are now in some position of power sharing and decision making. They will soon become disillusioned when they find that any promise that the Tories may give to gain the agreement of support very quickly disappears.

Perhaps as in 1974 when we last had a hung parliament and a coalition it will not be long for tempers to flare, promises to be broken and support to be withdrawn and then we will do this all over again.

What is to become of Gordon Brown and the Labour party? My personal view is to let the dust settle and wait for the coalition between the Tories and the Lib Dems. Then withdraw with good grace and dignity then Gordon Brown should resign as leader of the party and there should be a leadership election. Once a new leader is found then prepare for government again quickly because as with any pact that involves Tory promises it will not be long until they are broken twisted and distorted and the Lib Dems take their ball and go home. and we are off to the polls again.

As a chap I once worked for uses to say, be careful what you wish for...............................