Vote

– Only a week to go.
– Till?
– Till the General Election.
– Of course.
– You hadn't forgotten?
– Not at all. I've been looking forward to it. Counting down the days till May the...
– Seventh.
– Yes. The excitement of staying up through the night, waiting for each constituency to declare. The disappointed faces of MPs staring defeat in the face. Waking up on the Friday morning to discover the identity of the next Prime Minister.
– Only that's not going to happen.
– Well, I suppose there is a chance I won't wake up till the afternoon.
– I meant, discovering who is Prime Minister. There won't be one on Friday morning. It will take days, perhaps weeks, for discussions to take place between the party leaders, for a deal to be thrashed out, for a coalition government to be formed.
– You make it sound as if we are hurtling towards some sort of chaotic political vacuum. If that analogy makes any sense.
– I'm not sure it does. But it's a pretty good description of what is going to happen.