British election raises immediate questions

However, after the previous coalition arrangement, this next parliament will not see anything like a return to single party government of the old type.

Horse-trading will still be the order of the day on a great many issues. That may not be such a bad thing; it may mean that the leading party's convictions have to be thought through very carefully before being offered up as potential legislation.

A side issue in this election, but an important one, relates to the polls. The exit poll on the day of the election was the only poll that proved an accurate reflection of the end result. It predicted a strong result for Prime Minister David Cameron's Tories, while all other polls predicted a hung parliament and a result that might not be known for days or weeks.

Polling has never been a thoroughly reliable "science". It is, in effect, a form of educated guesswork – albeit well-educated – shaped by projections which are based on opinions from fairly limited samples. And, to be fair to the pollsters, human beings will often say one thing to a pollster and then do another in the privacy of the polling booth.

However, professional pollsters – and there are now more of them than ever before - must face up to some serious queries about their methods and whether they ought to spend more time and money on improving these than on marketing their services to television and the press.

Whatever the final shape of government, whether it produces stability will depend on the goodwill of individual MPs and their party machines. Let's hope they keep faith with the public.