Here we are then. A Tory landslide. I should have seen that coming but I didn't. I think I stopped caring, largely assuming Johnson would win anyway. I think, probably, that when remainers started to realise that Labour was their only hope of a second referendum, drifting away from the Lib Dems, the good people of this land realised there was a realistic prospect of a Corbyn government. Up with that they would not put. And who can blame them?
I will spare you the detailed post mortem because everyone's at it. We all know the score. Put simply, there are no redeeming qualities about any wing of the contemporary left save for the fact they lose elections. Their policies tend to be either morally debased or issue illiterate. Cobyn managed both. There was zero chance that working class people were going to elect a far left zealot. This is a good thing. The British electorate are usually right and they did what was necessary yesterday.
As it happens, this was the first election in a very long time where I didn't stay up to watch the results come in. I saw the exit poll and that was enough for me. The people I wanted gone were sure to be sent packing. I didn't need it in real time. Sadly Yvette Cooper managed to cling on thanks to Farage, but I'm delighted to see that Mary Creagh is out on her ear.
If there is any stand out story of this election it's that the Labour tradition is dead. Hatstand territory is no longer happy to rubber stamp any red candidate with a pulse. Britain is no longer the same. Labour can no longer taker northern working class voters for granted. Without them, you don't win elections. As much as they won't put up with the gender bending nonsense of the new left, they don't like progressives trying to overturn their votes either.
Consequently social media is a wailfest on the left and a gloatfest on the right, and yes, though I did not vote this time around, I took some small pleasure in it. I'm allowed a little political schadenfreude now and then. The remain/metro left side have taken a much deserved shellacking. But there's always a catch.
Though we have binned Corbyn we're still lumbered with Johnson - a boorish lout and pathological liar who is in no way fit to lead the nation at a time when it needs coherent leadership more than ever. Being that the next phase of Brexit hinges on detail, we're up a certain creek. Our PM does not do detail and the details of any future trade talks will be outsourced to Johnson's cronies linked to the IEA. This is not good news. I'm not celebrating anything save for the fact the election is over. Now we just have to put up with annoying Christmas songs for the rest of the month.
If there is one thing to celebrate it is now that the remain movement is dead. Leaving the EU is now a certainty. The sad part, though, is that the "People's Vote" crowd have shut up shop to instead focus on campaigning for a "fair deal". If only they'd done that three years ago we might be looking at a more reasoned exit process.
There are those who believe that a Johnson win of this magnitude may soften his Brexit approach but that doesn't seem likely. What we face, therefore, is an overnight ejection from the single market which for many exporters and services companies is almost as bad as leaving without a deal. Within a year or so the shine will have worn off the Johnson administration and it will soon be apparent that this administration has bitten off more than it can chew while drunk on victory.
For that, I will never forgive the Labour party. Ultimately they delivered a Johnson victory. Not just the Corbynistas either. Had the centrists accepted the result of the referendum and passed Theresa May's deal, things would look very different. Now we have an untouchable Tory government at a pivotal time without an effective opposition. That's never a good thing even if you are a Conservative.
The markets may have rallied today on the news that the wheels have fallen off the Corbyn clown car, but these such estimations are always short term. The real shock has yet to be felt and won't be felt until a while after Brexit day. We may not see ground zero traffic jams at the ports and grounded airlines, but we are in for a slow burn recession that can only be cushioned by abandoning the moderately sensible fiscal stewardship the Tories are supposed to uphold. Johnson may have won the day today, but those who held their nose to vote for him will gladly look elsewhere next time if anyone can offer a tolerable alternative. Johnson's legacy has yet to be written.
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