Page 78 (2/2)

As soon as Giles heard the word eighteen and not nineteen, he felt confident he’d won

“—994”

The Tory ca to make himself heard above the noise, asked Mr Hardy for a recount, which was iain, with every table checking and rechecking first the tens, then the hundreds, and finally the thousands, before once again reporting back to the town clerk

At 3:27 aain “I, Leonard Derek Hardy, being the returning officer…” Heads were bowed, eyes were closed, while soe as they crossed their fingers and waited for the numbers to be read out “… for each candidate to be as follows:

Sir Giles Barrington

18,972

Mr Simon Fletcher

3,586

Major Alexander Fisher

18,993”

Giles knew that after such a close result he could insist on a second recount, but he did not Instead, he reluctantly nodded his acceptance of the result to the town clerk

“I therefore declare Major Alexander Fisher to be the duly elected Member of Parliament for the constituency of Bristol Docklands”

An eruption of shouting and cheering broke out in one half of the room as the new member was raised onto the shoulders of his party workers and paraded around the hall Giles walked across and shook Fisher’s hand for the first tin

After the speeches were over, Fisher triuracious in defeat, Sihest ever vote, the newly elected hout the night, while the vanquished drifted away in twos and threes, with Griff and Giles a the last to leave

“We’d have done it if the national swing hadn’t been against us,” said Griff, as he drove the former member home