Monte Carlo

22:00 GMT official exit poll puts Conservatives winning in a hung parliament - short of only 19 seats. Let's see how accurate that is. in other news I'm 4 cans of beer down already.

In case anybody is interested I am going to live blog election nite 2010 ON THIS VERY THREAD. I have 12 x large cans of beer 4 x bottles of decent claret 1 litre of rum A large supply of Chinese food and dim sum Updates will be sporadic, although the bizarre news that the UKIP leader crashed a light aircraft towing an advertising banner this morning is an interesting development and worthy of comment. I hope Nigel and his pilot both get well soon, and sincerely hope Nigel unseats John Bercow later in Buckingham (altho' sadly he'll be in hospital). Cheers MC

^ I think the point is that this shouldn't be an issue in the first place. If the American kids want to wear American flags so what? The Mexican kids should be big enough to be cool with it. And vice versa. I lived through the politically correct 80's and 90's and went to school in the 70's (when racism was endemic) and no surprises for guessing that all the PC edicts have made things worse. Something had to happen, racism was a massive issue, but the Left couldn't let it go as a political - cultural weapon. It was the large calibre rifle that never ran out of ammo. And now we have this, these perceived slights and walking on eggshells.

I'm jealous, at least you get to see if you make a difference. Let us know how it pans out.

Wals, what constituency are you in? Would your vote make a difference?

It doesn't bode well for the future, does it? Kids refering to their national flags as 'colours' like a gang motif?

World governments! Yay. No doubt they'll have a nice uniform and camps for those who disagree.

The thing I resented in the polling booth this morning is the irrelevance of my vote. Where I live is so overwhelmingly Blue, there's no point pi**ing in the wind. Like Wals, my pencil hovered fleetingly over the UKIP box but I resisted. They're not ready for my vote. Yet. I want the Tories to win anyway, least worst option and all that. Despite my virtual irrelevance, I still prefer our way of doing it. Coalitions are nasty stitch-ups between professional politicians who will always be in office. Look at Israel, some far right nutjob gets a key government post for the sake of coalition building when his party gets less than 3% of the popular vote? No thanks. Cheers MC

More Brit super-sniper madness. More rounds down, but more baddies too.

Depends. There are several key seats, watch those fall one way or the other and the result is a given. Look at my example earlier about Tooting, will be called at about 0100 GMT. That needs a uniform swing of about 6.5% and will mean that the Tories are almost certain to win. OTOH, if it's really close the definitive result might not be out until Friday lunchtime. Look at the swing. Anything near 10% (this is, BTW, almost unprecedented for the Tories) will mean definite victory. 7-9 is good for them, anything less is a drift into hung parliament territory. Like I said, I'm staying up to see if Ed Balls gets his just desserts.

You miss my point, the anarchists are the bastard offspring of the Commies, who in turn had been crushed by reactionaries.

A cursory knowledge of our politics would reveal that the Tories will stick pins in their eyes before they do a deal with the Lib Dems. They would rather run with a minority government for a year, then go back to the polls for another GE. As it's looking this morning, the Tories might do it, or rely on the Ulster Unionists to make up the (small) difference. I expect another GE in the next 18 months in any case.

Er, since 1944. Greek Communism was particularly rabid as the ideology spread like typhus over the region towards the end of WW2. The anarchists you describe are it's direct descendents, Greece has been ruled by shadowy cabals with links to political extremists ever since. The ships-n-commodities gazillionaire class withdrew from Greek politics in the 1950's, which is why most of them are domicilied abroad.

Yet the Greek people elected them. Greece has PR. Like all PR systems, whoever you vote for, the same tired elite always seems to win.

Troll. I bow to your superior knowledge of UK politics.

Three people dead as the anarchists burn banks. this is grim.

Mr. Varadarajan, of the Daily Beast link provided above, is spot-on from where sitting here in the UK. Kudos to him. If you want to know the result but not stay up all night, here is Monte's political-spotting tip of the day *cue cheezy quiz show music* The London Borough of Wandsworth has three seats. Putney is already Tory, Battersea has a wafer-thin Labour majority and will go Tory. Tooting is Labour and the seat of Mr. Khan, a junior minister and rising star. If the Tories take Tooting they will have their +10 national swing and will almost certainly win with a workable majority. Go to bed, it's over. Wandsworth is a capable council, they usually declare by 0100 so it's not too late a night. I'll be up and waiting for that creature Ed Balls to get un-seated (fingers crossed), very posh Bourgeois potato chips and a chilled bottle of Pol Roger ready to go. Cheers MC

That's nails. What sort of stud thinks scoped rifles are for girls?

My enduring memory of California was being hard-stopped by the Fruit Police on the border with Nevada. They were suspicious that two English guys in a Grand-Am might be smuggling citrus fruit. The Fruit Police wore hilarious brown uniforms and Russian-style shapka hats (it was nearly thanksgiving and it was cold up there). They were polite, heavily armed and obsessed with fruit. We complied immediately, even though the only food products in the car were a crateful of twinkies and a litre of Uber-Java coffee from a 7-11. Timeline: George Bush Snr. was Prez, Clinton had just beaten him. November 1992.

Although originally from the Storm Planet Xarg, I now reside in London, England.

^ Yes, and those are both anti-materiel rifles, like I said with computers you are basically emulating a small-scale, extreme precision arty piece. The guy we're discussing here was using a more modest L115A3, a sniper rifle.

^ Wals, have you seen the groovy advert for Macedonian wine on the telly? I think it's great that the Macedonian Wine Marketing Board has such global reach, furthermore the ad has very high production values.

Grom is trapped in a spiralling vortex of his own contrarianism. Probably.

Misplaced patriotism? Hardly. I likened it to the shot taken by the US Navy SEAL sniper about six posts or so ago. I'm not American.

I've no doubt that the likes of Cpl. of Horse H spend many, many hours on the range and send thousands of rounds down them to achieve the kind of skill that allows this type of luck to flourish. Knowing what the weapon can and can't do, the effects of the terrain and wind etc. I'm sure his spotter had one of those crazy sniper watches that allow you to do the math on the fly, these guys are basically replicating with 8.59mm rounds what artillery or mortar guys do with indirect fire pieces. And remember, this guy isn't an infantryman - he's a cavalry soldier. His speciality is light armoured recce. I concede that the three-hits-in-a-row is suggestive of incredible luck - but if you read the story he even hit target one in the stomach - i.e. in the central kill-zone that a marksman would aim for at that range. Shot one on it's own is astonishing, what happened next is borderline John Woo territory. Cheers MC