OK, so what do we make of all that?

Even as the dust had barely begun to settle over the exit polls last night, commentators and candidates alike suddenly started talking about unexpected outcomes as if their involvement during the last six weeks was somehow entirely unrelated to the process.

Despite the tinsel touches of a leader’s debate, it certainly wasn’t the most exciting of election campaigns and fell well short of being inspirational. As far as the economy was concerned, the options on offer from those parties who were actually in a position to deliver a new government, or help to form one, sounded like asking the condemned for their preferred choice of execution. There was plenty of talk about change but not much about hope.

Those in the press and broadcasting who campaigned hard for the UK to emulate the US presidential style of televised encounter and thus enhance the democratic process somehow managed to omit the telling fact that voter turnout is actually lower in parts of the States than over here. This is of course the same media who had been providing the voting public with details of how their MPs are all lying, cheating, venal bastards who put themselves up for hire in order to pay for maintaining their second and third homes – and implying that those who had not been caught out were simply cleverer.

The consensus yesterday was that this election would be different from all those which had preceded it. So far, notwithstanding the uncertainty of who can form a government, the main distinction is that it has been the most expensive on record both for the parties and their respective backers. Yet in Wales, as in other parts of the UK, the voters appear to have been unimpressed by costly attempts at opinion forming and remained stubbornly determined to follow their instincts.

Meanwhile, interested observers are looking to Peter Black’s blogsite for an explanation on the frankly dismal performance by Welsh Liberal Democrats and how the national party once again managed to come third in a two horse race.

Update: An honest assessment of Plaid's performance is provided here by John Dixon.