The votes are in...

So, it's Friday: the votes from the European parliament elections have been cast, a cabinet minister has resigned and more are rumoured to follow.

I found it heartening that people in the street and on the doorsteps were generally interested to know what the voting response had been like. Unfortunately, with the vagueries of postal voting, not even the polling stations could guess. One of the staff at a station I visited reckoned there had been approximately 200 people visit throughout the day - this is thought to be a slightly lower figure than other european elections, and considerably lower than a general (this was at about 7pm and there were still people showing). Anti-party feeling was still in evidence from people across the political spectrum: UKIP seems to be the main benefactor from voter anger in all parties, but particularly the Conservatives (unsurprisingly).

I was surprised that I was not able to find a slate for Libertas on my ballot paper. Perhaps I didn't look closely enough, but as somebody who makes a concerted effort to read all of the options before voting (if only to laugh at Scargill and the BNP), I find it quite disconcerting that I don't recall seeing them as a option.

On the cabinet resignations issue (pitched tentatively in case Ofblog is paying attention...), I am surprised and pleased that James Purnell was the first member of cabinet to finally, truthfully and honestly lay his cards on the table. For those who aren't versed in the conventions of Westminster, cabinet ministers are not permitted to speak out against the government (aberrations like Clare Short aside). Convention has it that a minister tends his or her resignation in order to protest on point of principle and voice their opposition to the government of the day from the back benches.

This principled and unambiguous practice has seemed to have become muddied in the modern political world, with reshuffles, briefings, hollow shows of support, weasel words and pointed silences standing in place of real action. Purnell has done the honourable thing, and exposed the Emporer's nakedness. One of my organisation's own masters, Andy Burnham of the DCMS, is rumoured to a next possible resignation.

These are certainly strange and fascinating times in which we live.