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Commons numbers: Conservative 291, Labour 251, LibDem 52, Others 27, with a few more results to come.

When the numbers are this tight in the Commons - and a minority government may need the support of more than one party, its survival requires....extreme whipping.

Nothing like the 2010 Parliament . That was the last hung parliament, when a combination of defections and by-elections eroded James Callaghan's precarious majority clean away. But his administration survived for two years - partly through the famous Lib-Lab pact with David Steel's Liberals, partly through hand-to-mouth deal-making with other minority parties - Unionists, nationalists and assorted mavericks.

Precisely the scenario that now confronts the parties.

For two years up to 1979, a constant process of wheeler-dealing kept the Callaghan government afloat. And ringmastering events was Labour's formidable Deputy Chief Whip, Walter Harrison. By tradition, the deputy is the floor manager. While the chief grapples with lofty issues of policy and party management, the deputy ensures there are enough warm bodies moving through the lobbies to ensure a government majority on every vote. Harrison's guile was legendary. One of his most famous coups supposedly involved sending a Conservative MP fascinated by all things nautical to view a NATO exercise in mid-Atlantic - a trip which just happened to coincide with a crucial vote.

Then there was the careful handling of Frank McGuire, a Northern Ireland publican who was an independent Nationalist MP. He seldom attended the Commons, and never spoke. But he could, on occasion, be lured over to vote with the government. The whips had to keep him entertained, so, one after the other, a series of Labour MPs would sit and drink with him, until, one by one, their capacity was exceeded and they slid slowly under the whips office table, at which point a new drinking partner would appear...

And so the government was sustained.

The new Commons contains a number of one-person bands: Lady Sylvia Hermon, the Northern Ireland Alliance Party's Naomi Long, and of course the Green Party's trailblazer, Caroline Lucas. They could enjoy enormous clout, although drinking sessions in the government whips' office may not be so persuasive.

Eventually, the more conventional wheeler-dealing with the 1970s minority parties backfired. The government had courted the Ulster Unionists and made a series of concessions to them - but when it agreed to create five new parliamentary seats, which would mostly be taken by Unionists, it was the last straw for the Nationalist Gerry Fitt, and he demanded the removal of Northern Ireland Secretary Roy Mason as the price for his future support; a price James Callaghan refused to pay. An example which resonates now, of how reliance on votes from Northern Ireland can bring its own complications.

Walter Harrison told me, in an interview in 2004, that the key to success and survival was intelligence. Knowing who was not going to be present on any given day, knowing the minutiae of procedure, policy and personality. Keeping tabs on the health of ailing MPs on all sides, of constituency or family engagements that might keep MPs away at vital moments, of ministerial business that might interfere with a vote.

On the Conservative side, Walter Harrison's opposite number was the future Speaker, Bernard "Jack" Weatherill. He produced a guide on how to ensure the vote was maximised - including such gems as a reminder to check the gentlemen's lavatories in case any honourable members were slumbering within. He posted spotters from local parties to warn him if seriously ill MPs in far flung constituencies were being stretchered to Westminster.

With these numbers, expect more of the same. And expect the skills of all three whips offices to be tested to the limit, and perhaps beyond.

And watch out to see which leaders decide to beef up their whipping operations...

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