Not black and white

Today was my second ever vote in the UK general election - and it came nearly 30 years after my first one.

Last time was in 1987, the first election I was eligible for. And then I'd left the country by the time the next one came around in 1992. Does it make me sound old if I say the last time I voted, Maggie Thatcher was (and remained) prime minister?

For the past 20-odd years, I've been voting in Irish elections, which is a much more complicated procedure than in the UK. The main difference is that Ireland has a single transferable vote system of proportional representation for general elections, so on a lengthy ballot paper you can be stuck there for quite a while working out your precise strategy for confounding the political party you like least. There's none of this 'stick an X in a box and then you're on your way' stuff - you have to put a bit of work into it.

So today was a bit of a blast from the past - even if the party names on the ballot paper were almost entirely different from what I remember in 1987. The other difference, of course, is that that election had an undisputed winner whereas today looks a little less black and white. It's going to be a fun few days to see how the dust settles...