I suppose because there were no elections in London this year, the local elections passed me by to fair extent. Last year was pretty grim on the whole: locally we saw Labour all but wiped out in Havering. This year’s results don’t exactly make cheerful reading but they could have been so much worse (honest, they could have been much, much worse!).

The Scottish Nationalists are the largest party in Scotland, but will need a three party coalition for form a majority government. We are no longer has a majority in Wales but can rule in coalition with the Lib Dems (if they wish to play ball that is). The Tories did well in the South and the Midlands but not so well in the North so Cameron is probably feeling quite pleased with himself at the moment.

How do we view this? A final kick at a PM who was on the way out anyway? Perhaps, but will our prospects improve if Brown takes over? (I say if, but there seems to be little prospect at the moment of anyone else succeeding Blair) It is very possible that the electorate will simply see Brown’s succession as a case of “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” and we will be out on our ear in 2009 or 2010. On the other hand if Brown can make some headway in the next two years in some of the issues where we are seen as deficient (eg the NHS, perception of crime) then a fourth election victory is not an impossible prospect.