Indefatigability starts here.

Not too bad a result, all in all. Labour are still in with a fighting chance and a "historic third term" (how sick of hearing it are you already?), and the voters have given Blair enough of a bloody nose to make him sit up and take notice. Finding backing over thorny issues such as ID cards certainly won't be easy now.

The big issue now, of course, is Respect. Or more precisely, George Galloway. I can see why it took over seven hours to proclaim the final result in Bethnal Green & Bow; after the tense stand-off and ensuing shenanigans of the past few weeks. But there it is, George is in and Oona's out. And I can't say I'm all that surprised. For all his faults, Galloway isn't stupid and he chose an area where he knew there would be huge opposition to the war in Iraq, and thus an open forum for an aggressively persuasive campaigner like him to swoop in and claim the seat. In the end, the difference between 1st and 2nd place in Bethnal Green was a paltry 823 votes.

Galloway seems so slippery to me as an individual that it's impossible to tell when he's being sincere and when he's not. As I said, he can be very, very persuasive, in a way that makes you feel stupid for being wrong and not seeing that he is right. If there is to be any sort of real opposition to him, it will need to be bursting with the same amount of "indefatigability" as the man himself. Although perhaps it won't be necessary, as from what I hear he seems to spend more time as a talking-head media darling than he does on actual constituency work. Time will tell. Four years is a long time in politics.

I would have given anything to be down Brick Lane last night.