BBC exit poll shows Tories +9 on last time and Labour - 19. If correct (and spot on last time) Tories will be running the show and with increased confidence. Welfare system will be destroyed.

Sounds like it's hardly worth staying up. Just hope Clegg and Balls lose their seats and at least one high profile Tory.

If the exit polls are to believed it looks like pretty much what I predicted last year.

This election was gamed the moment UKIP arrived out of nowhere (financed to the eyeballs). Why people seem to think the British electorate won't put up with cynical race-baiting I've no idea.

Anyhow, both the Lib-Dems and UKIP have performed their tasks manfully. The Beeb seems shocked that Farage might lose his seat. But like the Lib-Dems (who will now take up their high-salaried roles in the city as payment for allowing the Tories to rape them each day since the last election) - Farage will now jet off to a nice house in the sun somewhere.

Neither were ever going to be around during this next government which will now execute its plans for massive public-spending cuts, the railroading through of TPPA, European arm-twisting and heaven knows what else.

Opening up the Scottish vote was nothing but a cynical ploy to further undermine the power of a major state government.

The electorate really does get the government it deserves (not that Cameron possesses anything like the power British PMs 50 years ago wielded). I hope it enjoys it.

Balls was being touted as losing before, apparently, the ballot boxes had turned up at the count. It's all gone quiet on that one, although it may be accurate.

The BBC are trumpeting their own exit poll surprise surprise while ignoring the others that have it closer. I hope they kept the receipt if it turns out to be crap

Have you just finished a stint on the BBC?

Since they don't seem to have a great deal of faith in them I figured it was only proper.

It was not a BBC poll but a combined BBC/ITV/Sky one.

I think the Tories may get a majority. If anything the exit poll may underestimate the Tory result. Labour has been killed by Blair (Iraq), Brown (economy) and Miliband (not electable).

UKIP is not a political party. It is a vote-rigging mechanism.

Does the SNP destruction of Labour in Scotland mean that Labour can no longer hope to be in power without some kind of coalition with them? Or will the SNP vote fade enough in the future to give Labour a chance to win outright?

What's this likely to mean in terms of % shares? I'm guessing Labour about 29/30%, the Tories 38%?

A terrible night for the Lib Dems, Labour and the pollsters

What a brilliant night!!

The people have spoken loudly and clearly and have voted for the economic responsibility that the Conservatives will bring and shunned the shambolic policies that Labour would have introduced.

Once again the Sin Bin proven to be hugely out of touch with the general consensus of the Population - 38% Labour. Oh dear!

#5MoreYears!

LOL - predictable not-an-actual-person comment.

Yes it is predicable that I am happy that the party I support won.

Highlights of the process thus far.
Ginger Rodent and Esher McVey both bagged.

Incredible result really. After 5 years of largely unpopular austerity the Tories have somehow managed to increase their seats. A shocking performance by Milliband who will surely be off to the job centre on Monday.

Revised projections as of 8 am Friday have Conservatives on 329. Enough to form a slender majority.

Regardless of if he quite gets that many it's been a brilliant night for Cameron, (and the SNP). Meltdown for Labour, Cleggers, the pollsters, and probably 75% of people who post on The Sin Bin.

Ed Balls has gone! Good riddance.

Once the tories have redrawn the boundaries, they'll be looking at power for a generation

Yes, I'm sure Ed Balls & The Head Prefect will be just devastated today as they finalise preparations to take up lucrative business opportunities they've cultivated shamelessly over the past few years taking every last shred of advantage from the exclusive access they've had as senior members of the opposition party. What abject failures they are. ROFLMAO!

No need to redraw boundaries, Conservative government will give devo max to Scotland to keep SNP subdued and in parallel introduce some form of English votes for English laws. As a result even when SNP fades a bit Labour will never again be able to use Scottish MPs to pass laws in England that don't apply to Scotland (having said that I expect SNP to remain biggest party in Scotland for considerable future albeit I don't expect them to retain quite this level of dominance). As long as UK remains intact and we keep Trident it doesn't matter if Scotland has higher tax rates to pay for higher spendingn in Scotland, the SNP then have to make that trick work without tanking the Scottish economy.

The BBC are reporting that Ed Milliband is likely to step down in the light of the election results. What a great loss that will be...to political cartoonists, at least

The Scots are even bigger fools than we are. They've simply substituted one elite class of politician for another - and will be paying more for the privilege.

I'll give them until the next election before they're complaining bitterly about "broken promises". The SNP will likely learn the same brutal lesson the American Democratic Party did in the wake of the passing of Lyndon Johnson's Civil Rights Act. At the end of the day "Freedom" is just a word. It's certainly no compensation for the guy across the border earning considerably more than you.

Incredible outcome really, showing just how far off the media in this country are when trying to gauge the British public. The media had us all convinced it was a split vote, nothing between Conservatives and Labour and only a coalition would create any form of Government. Goes to show that the public had very little faith in Labour's economic policy and the prospect of them joining up with the SNP to form a Government was too much.

Labour lost this election when they chose Ed Miliband to lead them. He isn't a strong enough character to carry off a job like that an ultimately he's completely failed to get his own policies across. The knives have been out for him this morning with many Labour figures slating him for a 'confused campaign' where the policies weren't well enough defined and many suggesting the Conservative campaign had been far more broad and far more concise.

An interesting day looms, one that could see the leaders of Labour, Scottish Labour, Lib Dems and UKIP departing. If that happens it would be a crushing victory for Cameron.

One interesting comment I heard this morning was that if the weather was sunny on the day of the election, people are far less likely to vote for change. Another blaming pencils and the complexities of having two voting forms and talking of thousands of votes being spoiled because people hadn't marked with a cross correctly. One has to worry about the future of the country if people can't mark an 'x' in a box with a pencil.

It's an interesting move from the Scottish. The media are now banging the referendum drum again. Do they have the power to hold another referendum again so soon after losing the previous one?