I must say that the general election rather passed me by this time. Mostly due to my own lameness I ended up not able to vote, and mostly due to us not having a TV licence and me wanting to catch up with the episodes of Desperate Housewives that I’ve missed recently I didn’t watch it on TV either.

Then this morning I woke up late and completely forgot that there’d been a general election the day before, my brain obviously having prioritised the act of rushing around in an attempt to not be too late for work above such things.

It wasn’t until I was driving out of Leamington that I turned the radio on, having finally got fed up of listening to Confide In Me, which had been in the CD player since Monday night. They were reading out the news on Radio 1, saying something about Howard congratulating Blair on the result.

The words were scarily reminiscent of last year’s presidential election, reminding me of Kerry’s speech conceding defeat to Bush. But this time it was a relief to hear those words and be reassured that this country at least had not ended up in the hands of a bunch of neo-cons. Although everyone expected Labour to win a third term, in the days leading up to poll day I couldn’t help but fear what might happen if things were to somehow go wrong.

But although there were no shocks this morning, checking the results this evening on BBC News yielded a few nasty surprises. Particularly the gains made by the Conservatives in the West Midlands, with James Plaskitt struggling to hold onto Warwick & Leamington with a majority of only 306 and the Tories gaining Kenilworth & Rugby (and half of campus along with it) from Labour.

Still, the Lib Dems took Solihull from the Tories, the Conservative vote at home took a nose dive after the previous Conservative candidate ran as an independent and Jim Cunningham kept hold of Coventry South for Labour. So I guess it’s not all bad.

Next time an election comes round though, somebody please remind me to get up off my arse and make sure I’m registered to vote. If today’s taught me anything, it’s about the fragility of electoral majorities, and the effects it has when things do change.

Yup, next time I’ll definitely be making sure I exercise my constitutional right to vote. Brown for PM! Or maybe I’ll go for Lib Dem, if Labour continue to piss me off over the next few years… We’ll see.

I never thought I’d say this, but today I found myself in agreement with one of UKIP’s policies. Perhaps leaving the EU in order to avoid having to implement the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive in the UK is a little extreme, but I guess it’s one way to avoid software patents.

So she didn’t bring along the Pet Shop Boys, Robbie or (thank God) Jason, but Kylie rocked on Sunday night. I’m still wearing the sweatband I bought on the night I’m still playing Kylie albums in the car whenever I go anywhere.

My love of Kylie has been hugely magnified.

Monday was spent wandering up the A312 on our riverside walk from Chelsea to Embankment, eating muffins and generally hanging around central London. The camera died halfway through the day, cutting my photographic activities short, but wandering around the city was fun and the company good.