The snap election is likely to make the Commons a lot more dull

At midnight, we won’t have any MPs. The dissolution of Parliament means that no-one who has sat on the green benches of the Commons for the past two years has any official status above their fellow candidates in the General Election. Some will return victorious for another five years (or until another advantageously early election). Some have decided that it’s time to go. Others will find that their local electorates have decided it is time for them to go. 

Elections are exciting for the political world. They activate a gene in politicians that the rest of us fortunately do not possess, which makes them enjoy six weeks of trying to save their jobs, or fighting again in a seat where they were turfed out only a few years before. A biological predisposition is the only possible explanation for people willingly putting themselves through the insecurity, lack of sleep and damage to personal finances and relationships that an election entails.

But these times of year are also sad, because they involve good public servants leaving Parliament, either of their own accord or unceremoniously.