Electoral triumph!

Celebrations are everywhere. Somehow almost all the political parties seem to have won. So congratulations to almost everybody.

Labour are celebrating actually winning, albeit by a greatly reduced margin. The Tories are celebrating not getting totally thrashed again, though I don't think that many are celebrating Michael Howard's decision to resign sooner rather than later, and the return to factional in-fighting which might well follow it. The Lib Dems are celebrating a significant increase (around 10 seats) in their representation, which I'm delighted about. The SNP are celebrating a 2 seat increase. The odious BNP are smiling too: they picked up an alarming 17% of the vote in Barking, 13% in Dewsbury, and 9% in Keighley. The Greens are celebrating 22% of the vote in Brighton Pavilion. No less than 3 independent candidates are celebrating dramatic victories: the profoundly unattractive George Galloway won his seat from Blair-loyalist Oona King (he's technically not independent of course, but I can't see Respect going much further). I can't help being quite pleased about this, despite the fact that I wouldn't have voted for the twat. The sensible people of Blaenau Gwent told Labour to shove their all-women-shortlists up their arse, and elected independent socialist Peter Law instead. Excellent. Elsewhere, the Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern candidate Richard Taylor held on to his seat (Wyre Forest), with the Lib Dems not contesting it. There are general celebrations because the nation's not as apathetic as everyone feared, with turn-out up slightly, on 60%.

A few miserable bastards though aren't joining in the festivities. Plaid Cymru are gloomy being down 1 seat. UKIP did badly too, and the absurd Robert Kilroy-Silk got humiliated with Veritas achieving only 4th place in his constituency. Sadly he just held on to his deposit. Gary Bushell however, standing in Greenwich for the English Democrats lost his, which is more good news for almost everyone.