Sorry Swift. My bad.

Indeed, the turnout was (slightly) higher than it was in 2001, which I suppose is a good thing.

So, Howard is standing down as Conservative leader by the next election. Which given their track record, is not surprising in the least. Then again, his reasons are fair enough - he believes that by that time he'd be too old (nearly 70, depending on when it'll actually be) to run for PM.

And of course, Blair's put it on public record that he won't stand for a fourth term - so if he backpedals again, we'll notice.

Personally, I stayed up just long enough to see that the British National Party got over twice as many votes as the Green Party in my constituency (Blackburn - local MP: Jack "the Foreign Secretary" Straw), and then felt a strange urge to hide under my duvet for a while... 🙁

You know, I like Michael Howard more now than I ever had in the last 6 months...

Well done for standing down, you did some good stuff for your party but you've dissapeared and hopefully Ill like your replacement more than I did you...

The problem with the Tories is that they've gone so many of their old grandees with associated baggage that we're back to unknown quantities again - which could be a good or bad thing.

They could get someone competent, or it could be IDS or William Hague all over again: people who just haven't got the experience top play with the big boys.