A lesson for Western democracies from recent history: don't call voters' bluff. David Cameron was a very successful Conservative PM, but he was fed up with the threats from mounting evidence that British voters really did want to leave the European Union and so called for a nationwide referendum. Brexit won and Cameron immediately resigned. Theresa May concluded the Brexit withdraw. She survived two no-confidence votes and resigned after three years. That made Boris Johnson, the face of Brexit, Prime Minister and not even he expected Brexit to pass. His term ended in multiple scandals . Then came the "head of cabbage", Liz Truss, who lasted less than two months. Truss lost her seat in Parliament tonight. Then Rishi Sunak, the current. He called a snap election amidst dire predictions of the Tory electoral devastation comin' true tonight.

Across the Channel, I thought Emmanuel Macron's snap election gambit was going to be a brilliant success. Instead, Marine Le Pen's fascist party is going to win, perhaps not a majority in the French Parliament, but a win which will neuter Macron and his party.

324 seats left to report in the UK and Labour leads the Tories in seats won 240-42. The Reds are now just 84 seats away from officially capturing 10 Downing Street and a supermajority in the House of Commons.