There won't be one this year but every four years the US embassy hosts one of the most prized social events in the British political calendar. It’s not white or black tie, you don't have to be a diplomat or royalty (though it helps), it’s not even advertised and no one ever writes about it in advance. And you can drink (almost) as much as you like without causing a diplomatic incident.

It’s the US election night party which has been held at the London embassy every presidential election cycle for years.

Most of the guests are UK politicians (MPs, ministers and SPADs), journalists (national TV, radio and press), high flying US exiles, bankers, starchitects, lawyers but some are ‘slebs’ in their own right with an interest in US democracy and whose agent has got them on the list.

They (roughly 750 of them) queue up on a cold (and usually wet) November evening to get into the old US embassy on Grosvenor Square - a building which is so ugly and shockingly out of place in this splendid Georgian square. They pass through 2 levels of security - physical and bureaucratic- before being admitted to almost roam around inside of the ground and lower ground floors of the giant brutalist building. What they get to experience is a night of raw politics washed down with buckets of American food and drink.

The food is all of the ‘fast’ variety such as McDonalds and Subway, which the snootier politicos disdain at the start but certainly not at the end of the evening when soakage is needed.

Visitors are initially received upstairs in the grand reception room adorned with portraits of previous ambassadors and presidents as well as multiple TV screens showing the main US news networks CNN, Fox, NBC, ABC, PBS or CBS.

Breathless counts are compared with final polls and the previous election results in that particular county which most of the room have never been to nor would ever venture into. Statewide assessments, exit polls, prognostications, forecasts are all debated before the ....drumroll.... ‘calling it’ happens by around 5am GMT.

Glenn Tilbrook who thought Elvis Presley had a greater impact than the Beatles

As far as I’m aware there is no systematic way for picking guests i.e. only correspondents or MPs of a certain rank get invited. It’s more a case of the old Scottish maxim: ‘shy bairns get nay sweets’ ie if you don't ask to be invited (or signal that you’d love to come), don't expect an invite.

Of course after all that lukewarm Zinfandel and Miller beer, one lowers one’s inhibitions and ends up in debates with people one otherwise wouldn't engage with. I recall a passionate argument with the Squeeze lead singer Glenn Tilbrook, about whether Elvis or the Beatles were the more talented musicians. I felt it had to be the four moptops from Liverpool.

I also remember (just about) having a stand-up argument with the-then Transport Secretary and previous Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, as to whether it was acceptable for national newspapers to refer to High Court judges as ‘enemies of the people’. It must have been a sight to see from a distance: Two men wagging their fingers at each other with one being six inches taller than the other.

Chris Grayling with the Governor of Tokyo. He’s a tall guy.

Even though Republicans abroad were well represented on the 3 occasions I attended election night parties (2008, 2012 and 2016), most of the people there secretly (and after a lot of Budweiser, quite vocally) wanted the Democratic candidate to win. In fact after much refreshment, many visitors repaired to the private cinema on the lower ground floor to watch the results come in from 02:00 onwards where Wolf Blitzer and John King would go through the tallies as they came in. When a state was ‘called’ for one candidate or another, it led to shouts and/or groans from the 100 or so seated revellers (err sorry, politicos).

When Donald Trump upset the bookies by winning four years ago, there were quite a few shocked complexions - none more so than the then US ambassador to the Court of St James, Matthew Barzun, who knew it meant he’d be getting his P45 sooner than he had hoped.

Nigel Farage, who was also in the embassy that night, had a very different reaction.

There weren't many shouting for John McCain in 2008 either but nor were there many non-white people in the room that night to enjoy the historic victory of Barack Obama. Nor was I to be fair because they had turfed us out at 04:00 before the result was called.

I clambered into a taxi (before the days of Uber) and listened to the final results on BBC Radio 4 with Jim Naughtie on my phone. When they called it for the-then senator Obama, I shouted to my black cab driver - thinking he’d be interested in it.

‘He won’, I said to my driver.

‘Who?’, he replied without turning his head.

‘Obama’

‘I don't care mate,’ came the reply to my surprise. ‘They're all the bloody same’