Is this the Portillo moment?
I am so bloody pleased. The Alliance have an MP. A real Westminster MP. And I'm not dead!
The Alliance have beaten Peter Robinson (who will of course remain First Minister in the NI Assembly).
Really, I grew up thinking that the Alliance were jolly good eggs and deserved to be in power but were never going to get there. I mean, a non-sectarian party triumphing in Northern Ireland?
As a family we voted Alliance to save our friends' deposits not because we thought they'd ever win, even in local council elections.
It has changed since the Assembly but still to get an MP at Westminster rather than just several Assembly members and local councillors.
My gast is well and truly flabbered and my cheeks are being to ache from grinning.
I almost don't care if the Tories win at this point[1]: there's an Alliance MP.
[1] well not really but I'm still dead chuffed.