Election Returns

So the conservatives won, well they got more votes than anybody else, but thankfully not an overall majority. Still the result was mightily depressing, despite three weeks of intensive media coverage and a much more competent (if less drunk and entertaining) leader the Libs lost three seats, the Conservatives gained virtually everywhere.
First up I think media predictions that the Lib Dems could actually equal, or even better, the votes of the other two parties were ridiculous anyway, as if the nation's opinion was going to change in three weeks after decades of an ingrained two-party system. Still I expected an improvement, maybe even as many as a hundred seats for the Libs, as it is it only feels like a step backwards. However the hung-parliament does offer a definite opportunity. Clegg, despite his feeble election returns, is still essentially King-maker, it's up to him who becomes prime minister, although it would mean a brave stand against public opinion to back up Gordon Brown (a leader who has never won an election), and could be harmful to Lib Dem prospects in the next election. If Nick Clegg can be involved in all the major movements in the house for the next four years, and make some good moves while he is in there, the coverage and involvement of the Lib Dems in national government would mean that come the next election both he and his party might be viewed much more seriously by the electorate.
So just another four years to wait.
As for the election itself, the results were a clear sign of immense voter apathy amongst younger age groups, where Lib Dem support is greatest. And with the present life-span of the British population, it could be thirty years before enough generations have matured to get them in power. That is assuming people don't convert to more conservative (in it's actual meaning, not political party sense) political thought as they get older, which is somewhat inevitable. I think the returns also represent a huge gulf between the young and old of this country, that their political opinions differ so hugely is disturbing. As part of the younger generation i can't help but feel disappointed in the older generations, who seem to be acting purely out of self-interest, with no real desire to see Britain progress.
It's my generation who will have to live with the consequences of succesively backwards thinking governments in the decades to come. The majority of the British electorate are cowards.