#UKElections2017: The little people have spoken in UK

The only real winner which emerged from the results of the British general election was the determination of the often unheard voices to be heard in what can often prove to be a perverse polling process.

If Conservative prime minister Edward Heath – ironically the politician who led the UK into Europe – could lose the 1974 election by rashly declaring he would cut the cost of bread “at a stroke”, Tory leader Theresa May had a tougher job in increasing her 17-seat majority.

In truth, there are no clear-cut winners in a hung parliament. Certainly the Conservatives are licking their wounds and counting whatever options are left to them.

May’s ill-timed pronouncement of reforming funding for elderly care, the terror attacks, and the disenfranchisement of the youth in the housing market, gifted Labour huge inroads, but not the government.

The Scottish National Party lost nearly half their seats, the Liberal Democrats gained three seats but saw former leader Nick Clegg losing his; Ukip imploded and failed to send a single member to Whitehall, down from 12.5% of the popular vote. The little people graphically demonstrated their collective power: in Heath’s case the nation’s housewives – in May’s the youngest and the elderly.