“The people have spoken, the b*****ds.”

This was the rather memorable opening sentence of Dick Tuck’s 1966 concession speech, after he lost the race for the California State Senate.

Such truth telling is rare in politics.

Other American political observers have also provided humour, especially journalist and satirist, H.L. Mencken in a piece entitled On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe.

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.

“On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

You can judge for yourself whether that is now the case or if indeed the US has already been there before.

Closer to home, Churchill had some wise words about elections.

Five minutes with the ordinary voter was the most persuasive argument against democracy, he claimed.

There is nothing quite like an election night, especially now that the electors seem to like confounding the pundits and coming up with a ballot box full of surprises, not to say shocks.

I have seen a few elections now.

Some when I was actively involved (beginning with the Falklands election in 1983 when I was a radical university student) and then on newsdesk duty here at Richmond Towers for every general election since 1992.

This one has been fascinating for so many reasons, even though it looked at the outset as though it would be far from that.

Quite the opposite. We have both Mrs May and Mr Corbyn to thank for this.

Firstly of course for its outcome, frightening though that is. Frightening. Grim. But fascinating nonetheless.

Then for the fact that it didn’t have to happen - rather like the referendum last year.

And for the Brexit implications which few of us can quite get our head around at the moment. Negotiations are due to begin in just 10 days’ time.

The dismal, stumbling, performance of Theresa May who had appeared to be sure-footed until calling the poll.

The manifesto fiasco and the social care mess.

Mrs May’s obvious discomfort on the campaign trail and the simple truth that she is a truly awful campaigner.

Then by contrast, the performance of Jeremy Corbyn who showed rather emphatically that he wasn’t quite so useless after all.

The huge crowds he pulled in, the fact that he had a message to articulate and his obvious enjoyment (and ease) out on the stump.

He has confounded the expectations of even his own MPs, never mind the rest of us.

The astonishing gains and losses and the shifting back of votes to the two main parties.

Of course, the terrorist attacks have overshadowed the seven-week campaign.

But the major point about Vote 2017 is just what a shambles the Conservative party has been.

It has traditionally been a ruthless and efficient Rolls Royce of an election-winning machine. Not this time.

The wheels well and truly came off.

It has been a shambles from start to finish, the campaign dreadful, disastrous.

On Tuesday, the funeral service takes places of our good friend and Conservative legend Judy Jamieson, party agent in Christchurch for more than 30 years and a respected national figure in Tory party politics.

She knew better than anyone how to run a campaign - and how not to. She organised and ran many over the past 30 years and enjoyed a fearsome reputation for getting people elected.

She died in April just before the election was called.

What would she have thought of this dog’s Brexit of a campaign?

Well, you don’t have to be a genius to work that one out.

They well and truly messed this one up, the b*****ds.