IT was President George Bush Snr who having lost his attempt to win a second term in the White House to Bill Clinton announced that ‘The Majesty of Democracy has spoken”.

Whether there has been much majesty in this long and often tedious election campaign we will leave to historians to decide.

It is doubtful that should the Tories, as looks likely at the time of going to print, limp over the winning line with some support, or Labour defy early exit polls and pull off a coup, then there will be little merriment either way. The end of one or another party winning an outright majority probably puts a dampner on jubilation.

And yet this is what we are told the people of the United Kingdom now want, government by coalition, rule through concession and compromise.

Where that leaves the majesty and glory of democracy we can only guess.

But majesty can be reserved and measured, as our present monarch has shown throughout her long reign.

Far better then to have the understated majesty of a British democracy than the hype and razzmatazz that is prevalent in other nations that tend to put a lot of store in such brouhaha.