Just got back from doing my little bit for democracy (for today, anyway). I was pleasantly surprised to find a queue on my arrival and so I had a friendly little chat with two of my Hasidic Jew neighbours while we waited to cast our votes. I'm only mentioning their ethnicity because a few weeks ago one of the prospective Labour councillors came canvassing. During his sales pitch he asked me to vote tactically in the local election as the Greens and Liberals poll badly in this ward, while the Jewish population tend to vote to en masse to the right of centre. The fellows I talked to seemed keen on UKIP but didn't sound too impressed with the Conservatives. We spoke about Nigel Farage's plane crash and the riots in Greece, the three of us remarking that Britain might not be so far from a similar situation before heading to the booths.

I voted for the Liberal Democrats in the nationals despite this probably being a "wasted vote" as this borough is pretty much a safe seat for Labour. But as my MP is Diane Abbott I'd be fairly happy if she was reelected and so my vote goes a little way to shore up the popular vote for the Liberal Democrats.

In the local elections my vote went to two of the three Labour candidates, the gentleman who came a-canvassing and his female counterpart because I'm all about equality/special treatment for women. The last vote went to the only Green candidate because she's got such a delightful name - Precious Martini-Brown. Well, that and the Greens have done some good work here in the 7 or so years I've been living in Hackney.

The final vote was for the Mayor of Hackney. My first choice was for the Liberal Democrat candidate, second choice went to Monty Goldman, finally fulfilling a childhood wish to vote for the Communist Party.

As I left the polling station the queue was even longer, meaning it's likely I've lost the money I put on a bet of a low turnout a few months back. So a bad day for my wallet but hopefully a good day for democracy.

I'm trying to find a decent drinking game for tonight's festivities. So far I've found this one by Army of Dave:

Drinking One Finger:

• When a seat’s result is announced. Now, there are – I think – 649 seats so this might be A Very Bad Thing. Alternatively, you can drink a finger whenever a seat changes from one party to another. Mind you – the way things are going – this could also be dangerous.  
• “Thirteen Years”
• “The BNP are twats”
• “Shiny”
• “Michael Gove must be sad that his work experience placement is over”.
• “Hopes & Fears”
• Any other album by Keane is mentioned.
• George Osbourne is allowed to say ANYTHING AT ALL.
• Jeremy Vine’s big shiny machine does something it’s not meant to do. (That is NOT a euphemism)
• Anyone accidentally calls Nick Clegg “Nick Griffin” (Though, if it’s someone from a Murdoch publication, this may be deliberate)
• Anyone accidentally calls Nick Griffin “a massive c*nt”. Sorry. I don’t mean ‘accidentally’.
• An argument breaks out (Extra finger if there is actual violence)
• You utter the phrase “What the fuck’s he/she doing on this?” or “I thought he/she was dead.”
• You laugh at something the Monster Raving Loony Party or similar do or say (You also need to go and take a long hard look at yourself in the mirror)
• You involuntarily cringe at anything.
• You can lip read someone saying a swearword behind the Returning Officer when the vote doesn’t go their way.
• Sleep deprivation causes David Dimbleby to announce “I’M DAVID BUMBLEBEE!” and attempt to drink nectar from Michael Portillo’s face.

There's also this contribution from Danger Man on Cooked & Bombed:

• 1 sip of alcohol for every Lib Dem gain.
• 1 sip for every reference to 1974 or 1983.
• 1 big glug for every 'Portillo moment'.
• 1 shot of tequila when Jeremy Vine is on.
• A bottle of scotch if LfBarfe wins his seat.
• Down a case of 1945 Chateau Rothschild if the Libs win a majority.

I'm going to try and compile bits of the above and other ideas into a little system we might use at our shindig tonight.

Anyone have any other suggestions?