Since I have started this blog, I have written a post on election evening with a little prediction. It’s been a strange old election, there’s not so much weariness with politics but anger and I feel as a society we’re divided. There is an edge and nastiness to campaigning. We live in a very safe conservative seat in a small rural town but even here we experienced some political hate. One afternoon on the school run, a parent thought it was acceptable to shout Labour scum to canvassers politely handing out leaflets by the school and in front of children. Politics should be respectful and we should all accept that whilst we may have different opinions we are all united in many ways.

For the first election in years, I was unable to attend our local hustings which is always an interesting and entertaining evening. It never has any bearing on the way I vote but I like the discussion. I voted after school today as I think it’s important to take the children and for them to understand the importance of voting. Little Man posted my ballot paper and was delighted to get a sweet from the teller too. Sadly there were no #dogsatpollingstations for us.

I’m finding it hard to predict the result, this morning in conversation with a friend I predicted it could go either way, a big conservative majority or a hung parliament. I think we’re approaching a period of change in our political systems, it appears the young have voted in significant numbers today and there is desire for change.

I normally stay up all night but have a pretty full on 10 days and think the all nighter could wipe me out when I need to be on top form. I’ll watch the exit polls at 10, try to sleep until around 2am and then listen on headphones in bed drifting in and out of sleep depending how exciting it is. There are rumours of big names being ousted in this election, even the PM’s seat is not safe!

I’ll edit this post tomorrow to see how accurate my predictions were.