So I should admit I love politics. The last few years of elections and referendums all over the world have had me glued to the (various types of) screen. So here I am 24 hours later after the British Election 2017 exhausted but with that strangely guilty feeling of enjoyment after 24 hours of politics porn.
I had a feeling since Corbyn released his manifesto that it wasn't going to be the slam dunk that May expected but I could never have dreamt that the hung Parliament that happened would have happened until I watched May over the weeks.
Y'know when you see an accident about to happen and you desperately want to look away and not watch it happen but you can't seem to not watch? Well that's what the last weeks have been for me watching May mess up in a way I never thought I would see in any modern politics. I should admit here that I don’t like her and watching her level of arrogance and sense of entitlement hasn't brought me any closer to her. Don't get me wrong I think Corbyn played a blinder of a race and I'm not a fan of socialism either, but in the end it was hard not to root for him. Socialism doesn’t work and it is seductive and I do hate and mistrust it as do many others but by the end of the campaign I just wanted him to win in some way partly cause he played the game the best and (largely) cause the thought of 'that bloody woman' having a huge majority filled me with fear and dread to my core.
The thought of her unfettered and unchallenged ploughing over everyone and creating even more of a police and surveillance state than Britain already had left me cold.
So 24 hours later .....yes there is a resurgence of the far left and socialism which is worrying and has its own issues.....yes there is a dialling back from the far right and its crushing controls here......but I think it was the best result maybe we could hope for. At least now there will be an actual opposition to the main party and with that we can have discussions. Parliament will have to talk and argue and shout and scream across the chamber, but at least they will have to have that now. If May had won as she had wanted to she would have had a free hand and an 'elected' dictatorship. So I'm relieved somewhat.
But 24 hours have proved that this was a car crash between 2 people - one who created an election that was his to win and one who spectacularly crashed and burnt herself and her party. They probably won’t last long in power, minority governments never do and May will probably last even less than that (I am smugly happy about that I confess) but wherever it goes now it definitely will not be dull.