The LibDems didn’t finish down 3 seats, all right, they finished down FIVE. What a kick in the bollocks.
I do stand by the second guess, though – I don’t think there’s a sustainable government to be formed. Labour won’t get to keep playing until Brown is out of the picture, and a Blue/Yellow team, while attractive visually to Da Wife, will not be able to hold together once things like Europe and electoral reform are on the cards.
New election by Christmas. I’m nailing my colors to the mast on this one.
ETA: This is the UK’s version of 2000 – in the absence of an outright majority, both sides are going to try to win this thing on television. The Constitutional process, such as it is, gives the Prime Minister the right to attempt to form a government – but the Tories did finish with more votes and more seats than Labour, and might well be able to scrape together a minority government without allying with the Lib Dems (and these two parties will NOT be able to stay together long as mentioned above). I have a tough time disagreeing with the Conservative assertion, backed by Nick Clegg in theory during the campaign, that the party with the most seats should be given an opportunity to do a deal – and while negotiations appear to be underway, I don’t doubt that the Lib Dems will at least give Labour an opportunity to make their own pitch before they make any firm commitments.