Nationally, it's official: we have a hung Parliament, the first since 1974, and the pony-trading between the party leaders has begun in earnest. Nick Clegg has flirted with the Conservatives, calling on them to form a government "in the national interest", but does he hanker for a Tory rejection so that his humbled party can fall into bed with Labour? David Cameron, for his sins, is to make a statement at 2.30pm this afternoon.
A few more results have crept in since we last spoke. In London, George Galloway's attempted putsch in Poplar and Limehouse has failed. Labour's Jim Fitzpatrick clung on to his seat quite handily, with the garrulous Respect candidate managing only third place and 17% of the vote. In the new seat of Brent Central, Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather unseated her fellow Commoner Dawn Butler by a couple of thousand votes, taking an 11% swing for her party.
The constituencies left to declare in the capital are Hackney North & Stoke Newington and Hackney South & Shoreditch both of which are expected to be Labour hold. 12:35 update: Labour's Rushanara Ali wins Bethnal Green & Bow, with Respect finishing in third place. Not a good day for Galloway's crew. Ali is Britain's first ever Bangladeshi MP.
Meanwhile, the BNP, who crawled into a distant third place in Barking, have offered a curious excuse for their defeat. Nick Griffin blamed "high voter turnout" on his racist party's pusillanimous performance at the polls. Tsk, democracy, eh? Always holding the working man down.
Speaking to Jeremy Paxman this morning, Boris Johnson offered up the choicest quote of the election so far. Drawn on whom he thought would be Prime Minister tomorrow morning, the Mayor demurred, but stated that "the meat in the sausage has got to be Conservative". Not missing a beat, Paxman rejoined: "Chipolata or Cumberland?" Are meat-based metaphors a sign of our political fluency or an indication that our system is broken beyond repair?
