Election day

For the last five years we've had a government that has done two things worthy of note. Firstly, it has, despite its vicious cuts, failed to achieve any of the economic targets by which it said it should be judged and, secondly, it has displayed a vindictiveness towards the disadvantaged that is truly shameful and disgusting. It is a government that is despised in many quarters and I think rightly so.

Indeed, even if you were a full blown Conservative - intellectually and economically - I can't see that you'd be proud of this party that has governed under your banner, working hard to recreate a feudal system in this country of ours.

So, to vote Tory today, this election day, you need to be one of two things: either vindictive and uncaring, happy to see the disadvantaged punished, or you must be the sort of person who believes what they read in the Daily Mail or the Murdoch press. And whichever of those you might be, you'd also have to be content to live in a country where the rich grow palpably richer and the poor get poorer.

Roughly a third of the people voting today will be voting for the Eton mess that has been ruling our country, dismantling our welfare system and privatising our NHS while allowing tax evading/avoiding businesses to hold back billions of pounds in tax. Many of these voters will have been encouraged by the press which is a growing cancer in this country.

As I write this, it appears the polling over the last few weeks has got it dreadfully wrong - I've just read a very defensive piece in the Guardian about their figures - as the exit polls show the Tories winning 316 seats to Labour's 239: hardly the neck and neck figures of around 270 each we've been predicted. One exit poll - happily the the most accurate, historically (apparently) - shows something closer to what was predicted. I'm clinging on to that.

I can't bear it, though. The thought of another five years of Tory government - of Cameron, Osborne, Gove, May, Hunt, and IDS - makes me sad and angry, makes me want to lash out, although I don't know what at exactly. I can't bear to look at the papers anymore. I don't know how I'm going to bring myself to go online and look at the results in the morning. How can it be that I know and meet so many decent people, all of whom have a vote, and yet the prospect of another Tory government is looming large?