So Farewell Then Ed Miliband

The opinion polls, it seems, were wrong, and despite all the final ones showing a dead heat between Tories and Labour, with any momentum going to the latter party, the Tories ended up with a small but genuine Parliamentary majority. As Sinn Féin do not take their Westminster seats, that majority is probably four or five seats. It’s less than “Shagger” Major got in 1992; more what Harold Wilson got in 1964.

There were few bright interludes last night: the repulsive Esther McVey was, as I predicted last year, removed by the electorate of Wirral West. Amateur spiv Stephen Mosley was, by a very small margin, ejected in Chester. UKIP actually lost ground as Mark Reckless was overcome by the superior campaign of the Tories’ Kelly Tolhurst. And George Galloway and his fedora were both shown the door in Bradford West.

Labour did not make inroads where they had to, while losing all but one Scottish seat to the SNP. Mil The Younger has announced his resignation, and Harriet Harman will step down with him. The question has already been asked: could Labour have done better with the other Miliband brother? And the answer to that is a plain, straight, no they couldn’t. The onslaught from the Tories and their press pals would have been just as vicious.

There may not have been a bacon sarnie photo, but there was the one with the banana. David has posed with a number of the world’s less savoury leaders; these photos would have been wheeled out as evidence of his poor judgment. His involvement in the more questionable goings-on that followed from the “War on Terror” and Iraq adventure would have played a part as he was laid low in the same way as his brother.

Was the Labour manifesto especially left-leaning? Was it heck. That was nothing more than name-calling. Miliband running a generally positive campaign counted for nothing in the end, and it will fall to another leader to reassemble the centre-left force that carried Labour to three successive victories under the sainted Tone. Plus there was one very important issue which meant he could not escape the abuse.

Ed Miliband committed himself to keep in mind the victims of press abuse and follow through what was started by the Leveson Inquiry and subsequent Royal Charter. This commitment was re-stated by Ms Harman to the Hacked Off lobby event in February. The Tories’ Sajid Javid suggested his party would leave well alone and, by implication, allow the Fourth Estate to maintain the status quo.

For this, the Tories were given a free pass, their spending commitments not scrutinised to anything like the degree of the other parties, with the Telegraph even publishing copy that had originated within CCHQ. The cause of putting in place properly independent press self-regulation will now be that much harder. But that does not mean it will be put aside, far less abandoned. And what of the much discussed social media effect?

The age of Social Media will have its time. But not this time.