While I’m on a military theme, incidentally, there are a number of incredibly good military blogs out there at the moment. If you’re interested in hearing from the men and women who are serving today – unsullied by political views! – take a look at some of these blogs:

Helmand Blog – run by the Defence Media Operations Centre, this is the go-to blog for up-to-date information about life at Camp Bastion.

Frontline Bloggers – also run by DMOC, this blog gives short articles from the servicemen and -women themselves.

RAF Airman – an RAF sergeant gives the inside track on life in the Service. He’s incredibly good, and also tweets @RAFairman. Cheerfully unofficial!

Jackspeak – the Royal Navy’s official blog.

7644 Squadron – an occasional blog from the RAF’s media operations squadron – some interesting stuff about what they do, and what their colleagues do.

Women at War – a very new blog looking specifically at… err… women at war!

Summerskill: Snide

If you read only one other blog post today, make it this one by Ed Fordham over on LibDem Voice. In it, he argues that he cannot support Stonewall while it is led by Ben Summerskill, given his recent attacks on David Laws for remaining ‘in the closet’.

I encountered Summerskill at last year’s Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, after his fit of pique over Conference Pride. To be honest, I think he had a reasonably legitimate concern then (namely the party’s new relationship with, shall we say, some odd people in Europe); nonetheless, his self-indulgent behaviour and subsequent undignified rowing-back were simply amazing. This man claims to be the moderate voice for LGBT people, yet he acts in as partisan and petulant a manner as Peter Tatchell ever did. Given Stonewall’s genuinely positive contribution to advancing fairness for LGBT people, that is not a good thing.

In this case, he has lumbered a step further. Leaving the legitimate concern about Laws’ expenses aside, it is, frankly, none of Ben’s business when anyone chooses to come out; it’s one of the most personal and stressful decisions that gay people have to make. For the leader of the most influential LGBT charity in the UK to insult and harangue anyone who doesn’t feel ready to make that decision is absolutely amazing. An awful lot of LGBT people do not feel able to reveal their sexuality for fear of persecution or isolation. That’s clearly a terrible shame, but we cannot hope to change that situation if prominent people such as Ben Summerskill resort to the claim that the closet is only occupied by people in shame. You needn’t be ashamed of your sexuality to be concerned about how your family will react to your coming out.

At Conference, Summerskill claimed Stonewall is ‘assiduously apolitical’. Maybe it is; but its leader seems to be determined to keep the charity in the shadows, unable to influence government as he drags it into ridicule and recrimination. Summerskill’s bad temper has already bombed Stonewall’s relationship with the Tories. If he does the same with the Lib Dems, as LDV’s blog indicates he might, how long will Stonewall be willing to keep him at the helm?

Why, yes it has. We have a new government (hurrah)! A liberal-conservative coalition (double-hurrah)! Ed Balls may yet end up keeping Labour out of power for a generation (triple-hurrah, fireworks, confetti and street parties)! Life should be good. I should be blogging in praise of the government’s wise spending cuts, its rapid scaling back of Labour’s surveillance state and its proposed Great Repeal Bill. I should be criticising its absurd 55% dissolution rule, its proposed capital gains tax increase and the Prime Minsiter’s ill-advised, and thankfully abandoned, attempt to hobble the 1922 Committee.

Why, then – as I’ve been asked by a few blogging friends recently – have I been silent? Is it, perhaps, because it’s hard to blog now that my ‘team’ isn’t in opposition?

Nope: it’s a bit less obvious than that. I have, for years, suffered from depression. And last month it came back, with a vengeance, sparked by the end of my long-term relationship and, in no small measure, by my exhaustion at the hands of work and politics.

This is, I suppose, my ‘coming out’ as someone with a mental health problem (no joking about Tories, please!), albeit from behind an anonymous blog. Even so, it’s tougher than I’d anticipated. Mental illness afflicts millions of perfectly normal people in the UK, and yet it’s something that many bear as a mark of shame or incapability, rather than as a group of conditions that can be treated. Too many people think that mental illness is always a complete career show-stopper – but take a look at Alastair Campbell, or the stupendously talented Stephen Fry, or any number of other wonderful, successful and powerful people who suffer from it, and it’s clear that this needn’t be the case at all.

Unfortunately, though, stigma can make it difficult for some people to come to terms with their condition, and that really can put the brakes on their personal and professional lives. Depression runs in my family, and I’ve seen its crippling effects when allied with worklessness and low income. For political folk, too, it can be a particularly acute challenge – as Alastair Campbell expressed perfectly when he spoke about his depression back in 2006.

Parliament, whose members work punishing hours and endure endless public oppropbrium and distrust, must have dozens of members suffering from mental illness, yet few (if any) feel able to talk about it (would you vote for a mentally ill candidate, after all?).  I think that’s a shame. Mental illness is a challenge, to be sure, but by no means an insurmountable one. Friends and family more than prove their value at times like these. And blogging has its place, too.

Acknowledging mental illness and its part in one’s life is a big step on the road to being able to deal with it. Which is, I guess, why I felt the need to write this post. Like many sufferers, I have good days and weeks, and bad days and weeks. Dealing with low periods can be an all-consuming experience, exhausting mind, body and spirit with sleeplessness and self-doubt. The last thing I could think about, during my recent low, was writing a blog post.

That, in a nutshell, is why I’ve been silent here and on Twitter. It’s not nice to talk about it, but I’m sure it won’t be the last time I have take time out from blogging to deal with my own needs. As I bounce back, I hope I’ll be able to get back into my old routine before long.

Someone has to keep shouting at the other side, after all…

Blears: Will continue to chirp in the chamber.

Hazel Blears has just held her Salford & Eccles seat by a comfortable margin. Guess she’ll be free to rock the boat another day.

Still here, sadly.

It was close… oh so close, and how we dared to hope. Sadly, though, the most snide, vituperative and tribalistic politician of the current political generation, Ed Balls, has clung on to his seat and will, no doubt, be raising hell for Labour in coming months. In the end he held on by just 1,101 votes, surviving a huge 9.3% swing to the Conservatives.

Nationally, there’s no longer any point trying to guess the final outcome; the Conservatives are polling incredibly well in some very tough Labour and Lib Dem seats (witness Lembit Öpik’s surprise defeat in Montgomeryshire), but less well in some of their key marginals such as Exeter. Labour seems to be holding its own against the SNP, which was about all they could hope for given their teetering position in the UK-wide polls. The Lib Dems are having a very patchy evening, making very little progress against high expectations but beating the Tories back in enough key marginals to make David Cameron sweat.

The only thing that is abundantly clear is that Labour is sinking, and that the Tory leadership smell blood. Cameron and Osborne have both been hammering away at the message that Labour has ‘lost the mandate to govern’, while Labour ministers are sticking to the line that Brown will remain PM until he resigns. If we end up with a hung parliament – looking increasingly likely now – it’s going to be a far more interesting few weeks than anyone could have expected.

Smith: Must use her own money for bath plugs.

Jacqui Smith has been defeated by the Conservatives in Redditch on a thumping 9.2 per cent swing. It’s not a big surprise, and it’s certainly not a ‘Portillo moment’, but it’s immensely satisfying anyway. Smith turned out to be an appalling, grasping politician, as well as a spectacularly ineffective home secretary. She is no great loss to Parliament.

Blunkett: "It's looking grim."

Well, it’s been a surprising night so far. The main media outlets were all predicting a hung parliament with a Tory majority, but some of the swings against Labour in its heartlands look likely to upset that. It’s been an impressive evening for the Tories.

David Blunkett was just on Sky, and gave a pretty frank assessment of the situation:

“It’s looking grim … I think the Tories will get a small overall majority.”

I can applaud his honesty, can’t I? I happen to think he’s about right, too. With the swings we’ve seen so far, it all augurs well for David Cameron’s team – but I won’t be cracking open the bubbly yet (still on codeine – d’oh!).

6 May 2010

John Mothersole, Returning Officer for Sheffield, apologised to residents who were unable to vote in Sheffield today.

He said: “We got this wrong and I would like to apologise.

“We were faced with a difficult situation with the numbers of people, and a large amount of students turning up to vote without polling cards. This made the administration process of ensuring the correct person was given a ballot paper much longer.

“The only remedy, which we could not take, was to extend the voting times.”

ENDS

… Basically: If all else fails, blame students.

In recent weeks David Cameron has struggled to maintain momentum in the LGBT community. Remarks by Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, and a number of Conservative parliamentary candidates have dented the party’s support among gay people. In the LGBT voters’ survey, 67.5 per cent of respondents said they felt that the Conservative party does not care about LGBT people enough or at all. On a personal level it seems clear that David Cameron has failed to ‘seal the deal’ with gay voters – just 22 per cent said they felt he cared about them.

It isn’t great news for gay Tories, but Labour can’t exactly draw comfort from it either. What’s clear is that gay people have voted for change today, and that they would appear to have rejected Gordon Brown’s relentlessly negative and faltering campaign. I remain hopeful that we’ll see a new Conservative government tomorrow – but if that’s the case, David Cameron will have to work extra hard to prove that we really have changed as a party. I’m absolutely confident he’s up to that task.

Thanks to Soho Politico for helping me with the survey design – and a big thanks to Lawrence Mills and Law and Sexuality, both of whom did a superb job promoting it on Twitter.

1.   The Conservatives manage a narrow victory, but with a razor-thin – possibly single-figure – majority.

2. The Liberal Democrats increase their presence in the Commons to between 80 and 90, largely at Labour’s expense.

3. A tense recount confirms that Alistair Darling holds his seat against the Liberal Democrats in Edinburgh South West with a double-figure majority.

We’ll soon see if my crystal ball needs cleaning…