More than a year has passed since I stated with confidence that Brown would never be elected as Prime Minister, so that's a little crumb of comfort I can take from the result of the election.  But that's about it.

We're now faced with a period of indecision as the political class sorts out some level of compromise that might enable either of the two major parties to lead some form of shackled government.  This suits no-one, other than perhaps the LibDems who will be able to extract some degree of political advantage from the impasse.  As far as business is concerned, the result is about as bad as it gets. 

Bank lending, already impacted by the credit crunch, is about to be further hampered by the spectre of default by Greece on its debt repayment schedule.  The cost of financing our own huge debt burden will rise, increasing the scale of unannounced but fully anticipated tax increases - but with no clear indication as to where those rises will come.  The Pound has already taken a hammering, which could be considered a good thing in terms of exports, but is in fact nothing of the kind as you can only export if others  import - and our principal trading partners aren't. The bloated Public Sector will remain bloated a little longer, but as it will be rudderless, it will be unable in the short-term to contract with the Private Sector. 

Remember Stagflation?  Without concerted action, a weakened pound and closed export markets, that's something we'll be revisiting very soon.  But concerted action can only come from strong government with a clear understanding that the only way out of the mess we're in is economic growth, and that can only come from a vibrant Private Sector. 

We'll just have to hope our political leaders don't spend too long working out how to get a business-focused administration in place.