Foaming ale and a vat of curry as they partied at PM’s local

AT David Cameron’s favourite pub in Witney, Oxfordshire, a crowd of Conservative drinkers greeted the exit poll with controlled satisfaction. The New Inn is a redoubtable boozer: a good choice of bitters, outside khazis and a vat of curry on the go.

Then came the result from Sunderland South, suggesting that Ukip was faring well. That deflated the New Inn patrons’ balloon a little – but not entirely. News that the Lib Dems had lost their deposit in the first result of the evening was met with barks of laughter and orders for fresh pints of foaming ale.

The BBC’s election coverage was playing on a big screen. Paddy Ashdown had insisted that he would ‘eat his hat’ if the exit poll was right. It had suggested that the yellow team could be down to ten seats. ‘They’ll be able to fit in two taxis!’ cried a New Inn regular.

The vicar of Witney and his curate were at the bar. Lorry driver Dave Taylor – a one-time Labour voter, tattoo’d with earrings – was proudly sporting a Tory rosette and chuckling about Ed Miliband’s limestone slab of pledges. Local Tory candidates for the town council reported that the turnout in the election was high – in one ward possibly 100 per cent.

Alan Beames, 47, Craig Brown, 33, and Chris Woodward, 29, were all keyed up – even though they were not going to find their personal results until much later today. The lads said that even in the trickiest wards, the Tories were more than holding their own against Labour. But this, let us remember, was David Cameron’s home town.

The Tory leader and his wife Samantha Cameron had voted soon after breakfast in the nearby Cotswold- classic village of Spelsbury. By that time the Milibands had already been in and out, wielding their stubby pencils in picturesque Sutton, near Doncaster. Justine Miliband was in blue with a pink cardigan. Hus- band Ed? In addition to the Labour-issue black suit and red tie he seemed to be wearing an extraordinarily thick application of make-up. I haven’t seen that much slap on a bloke since Dame Edna’s stage show.

In Kent, Nigel Farage proved he, too, could be an early riser, doing his civic duty long before the pubs opened in Ramsgate. Ukip leader Farage was in that point-to-point bookie’s coat he favours, a red rose in its lapel. He becomes more Harry Enfield by the day.

THE Camerons had to contend with a local protest candidate who was done up as Muppet character Elmo. The Tory leader chuckled but his police heavies gave the Elmo a filthy look. Undeterred, Elmo later appeared at the Witney election count.

Tieless Mr Cameron had scooted round his bullet-proof limo to open the door for his wife who, as on Wednesday, looked a little wary. Did she want all this fishbowl politics existence to continue – or end? Mrs Cameron wore an almost nunnish, high- collared blue dress with white belt, her rebel- lious tattoo just visible on her inner right heel. The PM is understood to have spent the rest of the day at his home in his constituency, resting and talking to colleagues by telephone.

Pretty place, Spelsbury. Nearby is Ditchley Park, where Churchill occasionally spent weekends during the Second World War. If Mr Cameron wanted encouragement to persevere with unpromising coalitions he only had to visit Spelsbury church, resting place of Sir Edward Henry Lee. Aged 13, Lee married a 12-year-old daughter of Charles II. Their union lasted 40 years and bore 18 children.

To see the Queen’s subjects – even party leaders – enter and leave a polling station, one may be struck by the quasi-sacramental nature of voting; did they not resemble congregants approaching the altar for communion before returning to their pews with that flush of fulfillment seen at church?

For all the gerrymandered constituency boundaries (the unreported scandal of this election) and the flaws of first-past-thepost, the polling station is democracy’s altar. We approach it as equals.