6. Pack Your Bags
Every election is notable for shocking defeats, and May 6 was no different. The major casualty of the night was Labour's former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who was soundly defeated by the Conservatives in Redditch, in the north of England. Smith was already reeling from being forced to step down from the government after it was revealed that she and her husband had been implicated in the parliamentary-expenses scandal, and many speculate that her loss was a result of that seedy story. Other big names to be shown the door included Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson and the flamboyant Liberal Democrat Lembit Opik. But one defeat that was widely cheered was that of Nick Griffin, leader of the far-right British National Party, who failed to unseat Labour's Margaret Hodge in Barking. "Pack your bags and go!," Hodge gleefully told Griffin, speaking on behalf of the vast majority of the country.