Elections have been predictable in the UK for decades. It is how they worked, the Conservatives in power then Labour then the same again.

The United Kingdom’s elected representatives have long raised comment that the posturing so often aimed at embarrassing the other side might not fairly reflect their responsibilities; 2015, however, might see a less clear-cut outcome, and take the wind out of some of those sails.

This year makes political history, the first to gather in the same studio seven party leaders for a televised debate, not just the usual suspects.

It did not look like the traditional big ones could carry this election on their own.

The smaller ones upset the apple cart, and they will insist on a say in how the apples are stacked after they are all counted.

They will have that say, in spite of a more than 100-year-old electoral system that has never worked in favour of smaller political formations but rather the large.

The UK is divided into 650 parliamentary co