The trouble is that the local level in effect balanced the enjoyment we get from having the results on the night against the enjoyment we derive from paying less to have our democratic processes administered (i.e by paying staff normal time to do the count on Friday instead of overtime on Thursday night). In that cost/benefit calculation, budget savings won. They may have got the calculation wrong and, as you suggest, people may place more value against an earlier declaration than they think they do (in economic terms, I suppose this would be classed as some sort of market failure). But that wasn’t the reason they were overridden. They were overridden because MPs (and candidates) couldn’t wait. Do you think local authorities will be compensated for the extra costs they will now incur to satisfy these 5-20 local authority residents? Of course not.

You make a good argument, but what I find interesting is that what we were facing was, in effect, localism against the will of just about everybody else.

Sure, apart from us saddoes, most of the population will not stay up late to see the result, but they want Eamonn Holmes or BBC Breakfast to tell them who’s forming the government first thing the next day.

Localism on this issue (and hundreds of others, it could be argued), was wrong. It is all a very good idea, but there are issues of competance and scrutiny to be addressed, too.