What a night, with everybody blaming the opinion polls for getting it so wrong. But, wait a minute. If you look at the percentage share of the vote (as of 8.15 am) the figures for all but the Tories and Labour are very near to those predicted. The big change occurred at the last minute between the 'big two' - a bit like what happened in 1992.

What the polls cannot predict is how things pan out under first past the post. So, the Tories, with around 36% of the vote, win all the prizes. Yet again we will have a government in this country which represents barely one third of the electorate.

However, the chances of getting a change to the voting system are pretty slim unless ALL opposition parties get together. Even if they do, what chance would another referendum have of succeeding as the opponents would throw the proverbial kitchen sink at it and resort to the kind of dirty tactics we saw during the AV Referendum.

The percentage loss of support for Lib Dem candidates was around 15%. We are the ONLY party to be in minus figures, which should give us pause for thought. My view has always been that Liberals are, by their nature, very much a minority so a figure of around 8% is better than many of our European colleagues regularly achieve. Under most PR systems that would give us around 40 seats - if only!

Where did it all go wrong? History should have told us that coalitions always screw the smaller partner. So the decision to join the Tories in the national interest was a brave one and we paid an awful price. Clive James famously said that the Tory victory in 1979 meant that greed was now patriotic. There is no doubt that there are enough people out there who really have not suffered under austerity and these people will often vote with self interest in mind, as happened when John Major surprised many of us some 23 years ago.

It's ironic that, at the end of my political activity which goes back to the 1970s, Liberals are, in terms of parliamentary seats, more or less back to where they were then. If we are serious about really breaking the mould of British politics ALL the non Conservative parties have got to get together on changing the voting system. UKIP is up for it, as would be the nationalist parties and the Greens. The big stumbling block will be Labour. We clearly can't do it on our own.

Best wishes,

Cllr John Marriott

Lincolnshire County Council