Phew! It’s all over.

It has felt like a very long election campaign, but we have finally emerged on the other side to find a totally different political landscape, especially here in my home county of Cornwall.

For the first time in my life I live in a constituency represented by a Labour MP.

Regular readers will know I was born and grew up in Truro. The city was Conservative in the year of my birth, but for most of my childhood the seat was held by the Liberal MP, David Penhaligon.

By the time I left Truro in 1997 to start work at BBC Spotlight, the Liberal Democrat, Matthew Taylor represented the city.

I moved to South East Cornwall, which at the time was also a Liberal Democrat stronghold, held by the late Colin Breed.

It then became a Conservative seat under Sheryll Murray and had been that way until last Thursday.

Now, for the first time in its history South East Cornwall has returned a Labour MP.

In fact Labour is now the dominant force in Cornwall with the Conservatives nowhere to be seen. It is a truly remarkable turnaround in a county that has traditionally been either Conservative or Liberal.

It just goes to show that democracy has the ability to pack quite a punch when voters are angry enough.

This huge political earthquake emerged from thousands of polling stations up and down the country; many in quiet rural locations like the one in my local village hall.

When I went along to it on polling day it was so quiet you could almost hear a pin drop. There were no other voters there when I arrived. The two people running it checked my credentials in hushed tones.

As they handed me a voting slip another person turned up, prompting the two election officials to joke they now had a queue.

It was hardly the stuff of revolution. Yet from this peaceful and orderly process, armed with just a pencil and a piece of paper, millions of people inflicted a brutal rejection of the party of Government.

This wasn’t just a finger wagging ticking off, this was a severe punishment of the Conservatives and I have to say it was no less than they deserved.

My opinion isn’t based on any political affiliation or any strong ideological belief, or any desire for one party over another.

It is simply based on observing what has gone on over the last few years; events we could all see with our own eyes and on which voters have now delivered their verdict.

Events that have included numerous sex scandals, lies over lockdown parties and claims of dodgy PPE contracts. There were also numerous occasions when the Conservative government bent and sometimes totally broke parliamentary rules.

The charge sheet goes on and on: the Health Secretary caught on camera conducting an affair during COVID, Dominic Cummings driving to Barnard Castle to check his eyesight during lockdown and let’s not forget the Chris Pincher scandal which ultimately led to Boris Johnson’s downfall.

Then there was the constant and totally self-indulgent infighting. How many hundreds of hours of parliamentary time was lost as the various factions of the Tory party fought tooth and nail for their own personal version of Brexit?

Hours of time that could have been better spent dealing with the many other problems facing the country. It also resulted in a constant churn of unelected Prime Ministers including the disastrous tenure of Liz Truss.

All this culminated in a failure to deliver on many of their promises, something that was quickly exploited at this election by Nigel Farage who simply added to the Tories’ woes.

And to top it all, if the voting public needed this behaviour underlining during the campaign itself, there was the betting scandal and the Prime Minister’s decision leave the D-Day commemoration early.

Throughout the election the Conservatives argued with some justification that many of the challenges facing the country stem from the pandemic and other global events. They also pointed to a gradual improvement in the economy. So why didn’t more voters give them some credit for that?

I strongly suspect it’s because of the behaviour I outlined above. Any good decisions they may have taken were quickly undone by the lack of integrity, honesty and competence.

Public patience was stretched too far. People who had felt frustrated and powerless to do anything about it finally vented their anger at the ballot box.

Which is why many commentators have observed that this was an election to punish the Tories rather than a totally ringing endorsement of Labour.

That maybe so, although it was interesting that here in Cornwall where a protest vote usually helps the Liberal Democrats, it was Labour that emerged as the bigger winners.

The results are undoubtedly a wake up call for the Conservatives. But the outcome also sends a powerful message to the new Labour government: mess around at your peril.

They have set themselves a high bar. Failure to deliver will lead to very swift disappointment.

As we saw last week, voters have long memories. Many are now more willing than ever to put aside long held political loyalty and instead place their cross next to an opposing party if they feel a punishment is needed.

In her election night speech the new Labour MP for my area thanked those who had “lent” her their vote. That’s probably a very good way to view it.

Many people have simply loaned their trust; it now has to be earned every day until the next election.

It’ll be very interesting to see how Cornwall and Devon fair at Westminster now that the region is represented by a wider variety of political voices.

Hopefully the damning verdict dished out to the Conservatives in this election will live long in the memories of all those elected this time around; don’t take voters for granted.

In the meantime good luck to all the new MPs in Cornwall and Devon whichever party they represent.

Bye for now!