The World

Why is this day unlike any other? I can think of a few reasons.

1. It is my 47th birthday.

2. It is Tony Blair’s 57th birthday.

3. It is the day on which my brother Tom’s novel got an absolute rave review in the New York Times, rocketing him up to number four on Amazon in the US. You can buy the book here.

4. My colleague, Lucy Kellaway, points out that it is also the day on which her novel is published in Britain. I’m sure it too will get raves. You can buy it here.

5. And last of all, it is election day here in Britain.

This morning, I left home too early to vote. But colleagues from North London report that people were actually queuing to vote at the polling stations in Islington and near King’s Cross. Nobody can remember that ever happening before.

Chris Giles of the FT is running a book on the election outcome. He reports that the two heaviest clusters of FT bets are for a small Tory majority of between five and ten; and for the Tories falling just short of a majority, again by about five-to-ten votes.

Meanwhile I was a little depressed to read the paper’s guide to election night. It is obviously a point of pride to watch the election results and to be still awake for the key moment that defines the night. In 1997, this was the defeat of Michael Portillo, the standard-bearer of the Thatcherites – a moment so famous that it even became a book-title: “Were you up for Portillo?”

The trouble is that it sounds like all the potentially dramatic moments are going to happen late at night, and I am still sleepy and jet-lagged, having got back from the US yesterday. My personal nomination for a Portillo moment is the declaration in the constituency of Ed Balls, Gordon Brown’s closest ally. There would have to be a really enormous swing against Labour for Balls to lose his seat. But, if he did, it would sum up the night. The trouble is according to the FT, the result in Balls’s Morley and Outwood constituency is unlikely be declared before 3am. Will I be up for Balls? I suspect not. But that may be a good thing – it sounds vaguely improper, anyway.