Hung Parliament

We've woken up this morning to a result the opinion polls have said would happen since April 6th, a hung Parliament. What will happen now, and what will be the effects on the country and the economy.

At the time of writing, there are still 38 results to be declared. This is important as the more Labour can get, the task of forming a coalition Government will be made easier. This is the only way Labour will manage to hold on to power. Once the last results have been announced, Labour will have to get their salesman's heads on and go round the smaller parties trying to secure their backing. This of course will be done by the Tories also. I think we can expect to see days and days of wheeling and dealing. It is of the utmost importance that a deal is done. If no deal is done, then a second General Election is on the cards. And if this happens the parties can expect a lower turnout, the public won't engage in this one as well if they think there isn't going to be a clear cut result again.

The hung result this morning has also had an effect on the currency and stock market (although the turmoil in Greece won't be helping either). The pound is down against the dollar, and the FTSE at the time of writing is down 62 points. Investors can't stand uncertainty, and this is exactly what they have got. This is another reason why a deal has to be done, either way, to make sure that the markets and the investors settle and don't panic.

With all the focus on the result/non-result of the election, the eye has been taken off the ball. Whoever becomes the Prime Minister, major public spending cuts will have to be made, and taxes will have to rise, and these won't be small measures. Whoever wins power, what they will have to do will be so unpopular, they won't be able to be re-elected for a generation.

One of the big questions to ask is how the spending public will react. The longer the uncertainty goes on, the longer the public are unsure of what tax rises and spending cuts are yet to be announced, are they going to keep their money in the bank? We've already seen investors becoming nervy, will the general public start to behave the same?

One thing we do know, is that we won't actually know what the end result is going to be for the best part of a week, at the very least. Interesting times are ahead!