Dr Hugh Pemberton
Reader in Contemporary British History, University of Bristol, Department of History
Writing on the morning after the election, the fog of war has lifted to reveal a battlefield on which all sides are claiming victory but nobody has actually won.
Others more prescient than me wondered before the election if it did not have a whiff of another ‘snap election’ – 1974.
It turns out they were right.
Then Ted Heath went to the country to secure a strong mandate to deal with an issue of national importance (in those days, union power) but found that he ended up with fewer not more MPs.
Ted held on in No.10 for a while but eventually Labour formed a minority government.
But the arithmetic and the politics this time are not those of 1974.
Screenshot of UK General Election 207 results, taken from BBC News website.