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Not since the fall of Thatcher or the Blair landslide has there been a political moment quite like this one.

Personal triumphs for the Prime Minister David Cameron and for Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will not just reshape British politics but could perhaps reshape the future of the United Kingdom itself.

Bitter disappointment for Ed Miliband and a political disaster for Nick Clegg led to both men quitting, and are sure to lead to months of soul searching for their parties as they mourn the loss of some of their most famous faces - felled by a brutal electoral firing squad.

UKIP's Nigel Farage has failed to win his seat - he too has resigned.

His party amassed millions of votes in England, more than the SNP in Scotland, but they have struggled to convert them into seats.

The future, though, belongs to David Cameron who defied all those - including at times himself - who doubted that he could ever increase his party's support.

And of course too to Nicola Sturgeon who warned that talk of an SNP clean sweep was wildly optimistic. The question is how two leaders, how two countries - who now stand for such different things - can live together or whether they will find that this is impossible. This is the opening night of an extraordinary drama whose conclusion is utterly unknowable.