Posted on 06 May 2010, 16:19

The last time I was so energised by a General Election was the 1997 Labour landslide, for which I stayed up late into the night. I needed to get to bed, but kept telling myself, I’ll just wait up to see Michael Portillo lose his seat, and then I can go to bed happy.

If Twitter had been around then, I would have realised that thousands of other armchair politicians were delaying bed for the same reason. This time round, watching TV and following Twitter is going to give that extra, hugely entertaining, dimension.

I’ve been idly wondering, the past week or so, who will provide the Portillo moment tonight. So it’s good to read in the Guardian this morning that Michael Portillo himself has chimed in and confirmed the person I’m hoping might just do this. Commenting with disarming honesty that ‘my name is now synonymous with eating a bucketload of shit in public,’ Michael says…

‘I would regard Ed Balls as my worthy successor, for a Portillo moment should lead to national jubilation unmatched since the relief of Mafeking, and I stand ready to light tonight’s first bonfire and launch the first rocket.’