The Oliver Coss column: A new day has dawned

Usually, I try to begin work on my column about a week before publication. Late enough to be current, where that’s necessary, and early enough that I can actually get it in before the deadline. I was, however, conflicted on whether I should write it before or after the result of the General Election had become clear. In the end, I’m writing on the morning after the General Election, because as we assembled the election night snacks, and prepared to get the children into bed in time to hear the Exit Poll, my younger daughter slipped on a football in our garden and fell on the concrete slabs, fracturing her wrist. This sort of thing produces deep sighs from parents, as we fear that this is going to involve absurdly long waits in A&E before eventually returning home in the early hours. In the end (and thank you NGH!) she was triaged, x-rayed, and discharged with a splint (to be worn for three weeks) after a total of 48 minutes, meaning I had a lazy half-hour on the sofa before the exit poll was even announced.

I know this won’t be everyone’s experience of emergency care, but I was mildly astonished at the alacrity with which we were seen, to the extent that I almost wondered whether I should’ve waited until later in the day to vote. I suspect it wouldn’t have made much difference as today, to quote Tony Blair when he romped to victory in 1997, it’s perfectly clear that a new day has dawned.

This will be a General Election long remembered in British politics. Northamptonshire politics too, as so much of our county changed colour, meaning a substantially new cadre of MPs will be headed to Westminster as Sir Keir Starmer assembles his government. I do not find him uninspiring, as others seem to do, as I think he has immense capacity to ‘do boring well’ and be an interesting tonic to the chaos and instability of the past years. It’s all been entertaining to watch, but it’s normalised long queues, creaking infrastructure, and a sense that nothing quite works any more. Politics became almost like Big Brother or Love Island, where the most outrageous characters go all the attention. It’s possible that Rishi Sunak is right, and that he bequeaths a nation in better form than he found it, but I suspect we’ll only know that in hindsight. He will certainly be feeling that this morning.

An election is a big reconfiguration, in great and small ways, as we move past the sample polls to something more definitive and comprehensive. It feels like our politicians have been called on their promises. It will be a salutary reminder to those who have promised change, those who have scorned an ‘out of touch’ Westminster, and those who see the world very differently, that actions have consequences. In the meantime, I shall pray for wisdom and courage among those about to learn the work of government, and give thanks for those whose hard work and campaigning ended in defeat.