These, along with the Iron Bridge, Winnie the Pooh, Rolls-Royce, cheddar cheese, narrowboats, the Peak District (all of it, apparently), the Thames, red telephone boxes, Mrs Beeton’s cookbook, Wimbledon tennis, Westminster Abbey, the robin, roses, the V-for-Victory sign, the English weather and the stiff upper lip, join the 53 previously announced as Icons of England.

Rather than contemplating on the absurdity of such a list (particularly since it includes swathes of English countryside and its climate – why not just nominate the whole country?), I’m just going to celebrate the inclusion of Doctor Who, which is now “officially” an English icon, despite having featured two Scottish Doctors and being made in Wales.

CNN are reporting breaking news that Donald Rumsfeld is to step down as US Defense Secretary. All those conspiracy theorists who said that Joe Lieberman would be appointed to replace him will be on the edges of their seats…

Meanwhile, the Dems say they’ve won Montana and Virginia but the results still need to be confirmed and there is an outisde chance the Republican incumbents could each ask for a recount.

Update: The conspiracists will be relieved (their views on the new man aside) to hear that Bob Gates is replacing Donald Rumsfeld.

Bush is currently giving a press conference, babbling away as only he can.

With Sky News on the TV and 18 Doughty Street and CNN live on my laptop (18DS seemed to have the greatest concentration of Republican cheerleaders in the UK; poor Tim Montgomerie’s face when Rick Santorum lost), plus browser windows for MyDD, Daily Kos, CNN and CBS, I had the election results on a saline drip last night.

But dripping in they still are, with some races sufficiently close for recounts.

Governors
In addition to the wins I mentioned earlier, you can add Colorado, taking the Democrats’ gains to six: Arkansas, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio.

House of Representatives
CNN have called 27 gains from the Republicans, although some of these are having recounts. If you’ll excuse the shorthand (I’ll try to get these abbreviations right…), these pickups are: AZ-05, AZ-08, CA-11, CO-07, CT-05, FL-16, FL-22, IN-02, IN-08, IN-09, IA-01, IA-02, KA-02, KY-03, MN-01, NH-01, NH-02, NY-19, NY-20, NY-24, NC-11, OH-18, PA-04, PA-07, PA-10, TX-22, WI-08.

The Dems failed to gain the Florida 13th by less than 400 votes. The Connecticut 2nd is within 250 votes with 97% of precincts in and the Pennsylvania 8th looks like a very close Democrat pickup. The Georgia 8th and 12th look like close Democrat holds, but both face potential recounts. The Washington 8th is another one to keep an eye on.

Senate
Missouri was called as a Democrat gain, which leaves it down to Montana and Virginia. The counting is due to continue today: Democrat Jon Tester is less than 2,000 ahead in Montana and Jim Webb is leading by around 8,000 in Virginia.

Having picked up four seats already (Ohio, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island), and assuming Lieberman plays ball, the Dems need both seats to reach the magic 51-seat majority in the Senate; win one and the Senate will be 50-50, with Vice President Dick Cheney holding the casting vote. I’m reminded of an exchange from The West Wing.
Josh: “We could try the Bob Russell thing.”
Santos: “Get a bad haircut and break ties in the Senate?”

State legislatures
Via MyDD comes news from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee:

Democrats won new majorities in the Indiana House, New Hampshire House and Senate, Iowa House and Senate, the Minnesota House, the Michigan House, the Wisconsin Senate, and the Oregon House.
[…]
Democrats have gained ground in the Tennessee Senate, Ohio House, Pennsylvania House, and the North Dakota House and Senate.
[…]
Pre-election Democrats controlled 47 chambers to the Republicans 49, with 2 chambers tied. So far, Democrats have 51 chambers to the Republicans 31, with the remainder to be called.

The DLCC website now shows 52 Democratic chambers to 34 Republican.

A few seat changes as called thus far by the American networks (because if the media say so, they needn’t worry about counting votes or anything trivial like that 🙂 ).

House
Democrats take the Vermont at-large seat from Independent (who caucused with the Dems), who has been elected the new Vermont senator.

Senate
Ohio has been taken by the Democrats from the Republicans; CBS is calling Pennsylvania as a gain from the Republicans too

Governorships
Ohio and Massachusetts have gone from Republican to Democratic

And that’s it so far.

2am update: Indiana 8th congressional district has been called as a gain for the Democrats. CNN are calling the New York governorship as another gain from the Republicans.

2:30am update: I mentioned earlier that Maryland and New Jersey were Senate seats where Democrats were potentially on the back foot; both of those have been called as Dem holds. Joe Lieberman is projected as the winner of the Connecticut Senate seat as an independent, although he has said he will caucus with the Democrats. The Rhode Island Senate seat has just been called as a Democratic gain whch, counting Lieberman with the Democrats, takes the net total in the Senate to three gains.

Indiana’s 2nd district and Kentucky’s 3rd have also been called as Democratic gains for the House.

3:30am update: The Virginia Senate race is painfully close, but incumbent Republican George Allen looks to be clinging on. The Dems have picked up another seat in the House, the New Hampshire 2nd, and it looks like the Connecticut 5th, the scandal-hit Ohio 18th, and the Pennsylvania 7th and 10th will follow.

4am update: The Arizona 8th, the Ohio 18th, the New York 24th, the North Carolina 11th, and the Penn 7th and 10th have been taken from the Republicans. The Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia Senate races don’t look hopeful. The Dems have gained the Arkansas governor’s mansion – that’s five gubernatorial pickups, giving them a clear majority of governors.

The BBC has just reported that the Democrats have made enough gains to take the House.

4:30am update: I could do with going to bed, and will do shortly, but I’m hanging on to see what happens in Virginia. More House pickups for the Democrats: the Connecticut 5th is confirmed, plus the Florida 16th (Mark Foley’s seat) and the 22nd; the Indiana 2nd and 9th; the Arizona 5th; the New Hampshire 1st; the Pennsylvania 4th; and the New York 20th. There are also numerous previously Republican seats that are currently too close to call, the Democrats within 1 or 2% of the incumbent.

There are a few races where the polls closed relatively late which are also outside chances. The RNC have thrown everything at the Idaho 1st in a desperate defence there, and all three House races in Nebraska are currently very close. The Nebraska 3rd, in particular, is a success story even without a win: the mere fact of turning the sixth safest Republican seat in the country into a real fight demonstrates the value of a “no black holes” mentality.

Jim Webb seems confident of taking Virginia – he’s closed a thirty thousand vote deficit to just six thousand with 98% of districts reported. It could really go either way. Montana is looking a better chance than Missouri, but neither has had enough votes counted for the result to be clear for some time yet.

I’m off to bed shortly, so that’s your lot for now unless Virginia declares in the next few minutes. I can’t see the Democrats taking the Senate, but their chances for the White House in 2008 may be the better for that. A reasonable majority in the House of Representatives will hopefully allow the Democrats to rein in President Bush’s most extreme tendencies without laying with them the responsibility for failures of government in the next two years.

5am (final) update: OK, still here. Jim Webb is now leading by two-and-a-half thousand votes in Virginia. It’s going down to the wire… Meanwhile, the Iowa 1st and Kansas 2nd congressional districts have been picked up by the Dems. The Wyoming at-large seat currently shows Democrat Gary Trauner ahead of incumbent Barbara Cubin by just 800 votes with 83% of precincts reporting.

Right, that really is your lot. Fingers crossed for Virginia, Montana and Missouri. Goodnight.