All 650 MPs out of a job, for now

Well, for the next 39 days their wishes have come true.

They finished their work in the Commons chamber last week, when the parliamentary session was officially ended with the ceremony of prorogation.

But as of yesterday, Parliament is dissolved - meaning every one of the 650 elected in 2010 is officially out of a job. At least this time they had plenty of notice.

In the past the timing of dissolution was at the whim of the prime minister of the day, sweeping up to Buckingham Palace to request of the monarch that they exercise their royal prerogative.

But the Fixed Term Parliaments Act not only ended the power of a PM to decide the date of an election but stripped the Queen of any role.