This talk, part of the 'Rethinking the past' lecture series 2015, professor Ewen Cameron puts the UK Election of 2015 in its historical context by trying to analyse historically the issues generated by the election; the importance of controlling narratives of the recent past, the performance of the Labour party, the near wipe out of the Liberal Democrats, the influence of Scottish results and of the SNP particular, and the role of opinion polling. What might it all mean for the future?