[Andy McDandy]

Gloucester and the 'Nam, no. Nor the Stroud valleys. But the Cotswolds are true blue and the forest of Dean is the Twatwald.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Pretty good in Coventry, only one seat lost in a Brexitty place. Thought that could be bad.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Gloucester and the 'Nam, no. Nor the Stroud valleys. But the Cotswolds are true blue and the forest of Dean is the Twatwald.

Cotswold voted Remain, surprisingly. The Tories suffered a bit there on the council from a big scandal of the Cotswold Water Park a few years ago. Clegg's Lib Dems were picking up seats. Probably receded a bit now.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Kicking for Labour in Hastings, but they still hold the council. Thought that might go better, seeing poorer places in the South are getting much less attention.

[The Weeping Angel]

Kicking for Labour in Hastings, but they still hold the council. Thought that might go better, seeing poorer places in the South are getting much less attention.

Yeah I saw that. Here in the West Midlands we lost seats in Sandwell, Wolverhampton Dudley, Redditch, Nuneaton, Walsall, Coventry and we lost two by-elections here as well.

[Youngian]

Its a mind boggling set of results once you get passed the headlines. Some Northern towns and cities have been playing away with the Greens to eat into Labour’s vote. And no Brexit bounce in Hull where the Tories and Labour lost a seat to the Lib Dems. Some poor Tory results in the south as well. But they’ve made ground in swing seats like Basildon and Nuneaton. And that’s the worst news for Labour not losing Hartlepool with a high home-owning pensioner demographic.

[Youngian]

Kicking for Labour in Hastings, but they still hold the council. Thought that might go better, seeing poorer places in the South are getting much less attention.

Surprising as Labour’s doing well in neighbouring Kent and Hastings is a priced out of Brighton and London kind of place.

[The Weeping Angel]

Its a mind boggling set of results once you get passed the headlines. Some Northern towns and cities have been playing away with the Greens to eat into Labour’s vote. And no Brexit bounce in Hull where the Tories and Labour lost a seat to the Lib Dems. Some poor Tory results in the south as well. But they’ve made ground in swing seats like Basildon and Nuneaton. And that’s the worst news for Labour not losing Hartlepool with a high home-owning pensioner demographic.

True then again and I'm not being naive or I think Labour have done well but Labour have done well in Cheshire, Kent, Cornwall and rural communities in the sout west, Wales and we seem to have held our in Soctland and we could get the West of England mayoralty tomorrow.

[mattomac]

The vote share and the projections aren’t particularly bad and I said I felt it wouldn’t be the best of nights but a mixed bag. Wales has helped Labour a lot but as I said on Twitter, policies without power are nothing, you can’t deliver anything without power, Drakeford and Carwyn Jones have been good leaders in Wales and have delivered.

Grand schemes and announcements of a Celtic alliance are fairly land, I’m not surprised independence polls even in Scotland are all over the shop. Remember there was a time when the north joked oh Scotland take us with you....

You wouldn’t anymore.

[The Weeping Angel]

The vote share and the projections aren’t particularly bad and I said I felt it wouldn’t be the best of nights but a mixed bag. Wales has helped Labour a lot but as I said on Twitter, policies without power are nothing, you can’t deliver anything without power, Drakeford and Carwyn Jones have been good leaders in Wales and have delivered.

Grand schemes and announcements of a Celtic alliance are fairly land, I’m not surprised independence polls even in Scotland are all over the shop. Remember there was a time when the north joked oh Scotland take us with you....

You wouldn’t anymore.

Yeah I think that's how I'd sum it up, Labour have lost 170 councillors so far, according to the Guardian live blog.

[davidjay]

The vote share and the projections aren’t particularly bad and I said I felt it wouldn’t be the best of nights but a mixed bag. Wales has helped Labour a lot but as I said on Twitter, policies without power are nothing, you can’t deliver anything without power, Drakeford and Carwyn Jones have been good leaders in Wales and have delivered.

Grand schemes and announcements of a Celtic alliance are fairly land, I’m not surprised independence polls even in Scotland are all over the shop. Remember there was a time when the north joked oh Scotland take us with you....

You wouldn’t anymore.

This should be written in letters a hundred feet high outside every constituency office and tattooed on the forehead of any supposed socialist who gloats over bad news for Labour.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Kicking for Labour in Hastings, but they still hold the council. Thought that might go better, seeing poorer places in the South are getting much less attention.

Surprising as Labour’s doing well in neighbouring Kent and Hastings is a priced out of Brighton and London kind of place.

Margate is like that, but as yet no obvious effect on North Thanet. I suppose in some places retirees are still more significant than "citizens of nowhere". You might move to Reading because it's a bit cheaper than London, but you probably won't retire to Reading.

[Dalem Lake]

Well North Northants is done and dusted, and the results (unsurprisingly) are: Con 60, Lab 14, Green 3, Independent 1.

The Labour lot are mainly from Corby, which was the sole Labour council in the county previously. Good result for the Greens, who had a clean sweep in one ward, but apparently that was due to a pact they had with the Lib Dems though they did pretty well across the board vote wise.

We need to get STV in these elections because the winner takes all system, particularly with three seats per electoral ward, simply isn't fair. Vote share wise, the Tories polled around 40-45% yet took 75% of the seats. Turnout was around only 33% though so you could say that apathy was the Tories best friend here.

[mattomac]

The vote share and the projections aren’t particularly bad and I said I felt it wouldn’t be the best of nights but a mixed bag. Wales has helped Labour a lot but as I said on Twitter, policies without power are nothing, you can’t deliver anything without power, Drakeford and Carwyn Jones have been good leaders in Wales and have delivered.

Grand schemes and announcements of a Celtic alliance are fairly land, I’m not surprised independence polls even in Scotland are all over the shop. Remember there was a time when the north joked oh Scotland take us with you....

You wouldn’t anymore.

Yeah I think that's how I'd sum it up, Labour have lost 170 councillors so far, according to the Guardian live blog.

Just saying that there are areas which are very near identical and you see nothing of the churn.

The University thing is an interesting one, whole swathes of the country have providers in their areas, I bet you could map the peaks and troughs to towns and cities with and without one. And people say oh it’s students, but it’s not, effectively Swansea has two and they are probably two of the biggest providers of jobs and income into that city.

The biggest legacy of Blair might actually be what is to come, time and time again we see the age disparity between voters, Labour now need to be bolder as we step out from the pandemic, the saddest thing is I don’t think it could have been that much better this last year. Circumstances just haven’t allowed it.

What it does in the next 12 months is important, it’s not simply about trashy shit like “oh it’s the woke politics”

Strong leadership of people doing stuff in power is why Manchester, Wales and probably London will return such high numbers for Labour. End of the day polling in Wales was suggesting a similar bloodbath only two months back, Drakeford has now matched the joint best ever performance for Labour and have increased majorities across the board.

It looks like Andy Burham is improving Labour in Manchester holding firm in some areas and solidifying places like Trafford.

And then some of the biggest reverses in councils on the morning of Friday were for Lib Dem’s and Greens.

Wales is being bigged up as some socialist leftie paradise by the far left, it’s not, that’s people who have never lived or worked there.

On another thing....

Can journalists stop with “source tells me, I’m disgusted with what source says, I use said narrative throughout my election pieces”.

I asked the said journalist if you are going use a source in such a way please name them.

[mattomac]

Andy Burnham has smashed it in Manchester and similar has Steve Rotheram in Liverpool.

Birmingham has reached second round but will be Andy Street, he probably could have aspected better but then I think Metro Mayors are making more of an impact.

[mattomac]

Also Labour have gained West of England Metro Mayor, probably one they could have hoped for but all the Tory Briefing this morning is that they had got it. Probably similar to that Shaun Bailey stuff, probably didn’t realise there is more than one area.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Also Labour have gained West of England Metro Mayor, probably one they could have hoped for but all the Tory Briefing this morning is that they had got it. Probably similar to that Shaun Bailey stuff, probably didn’t realise there is more than one area.

Did the Tory candidate for West of England campaign in Taunton, as Bailey probably would have done?

The South Gloucestershire results will be interesting. Always feel Labour should do better there. They really ought to have held Kingswood in 2010 (not later though).

"West of England" isn't the best name, but I suppose they had to avoid calling it Avon.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Burnham's going to be way ahead of Khan, even after Khan's second preferences.

Which one represents liberal elite London?

[The Weeping Angel]

Also Labour have gained West of England Metro Mayor, probably one they could have hoped for but all the Tory Briefing this morning is that they had got it. Probably similar to that Shaun Bailey stuff, probably didn’t realise there is more than one area.

So much for only Socialists are winning.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Stever Rotheram did well, but down a small amount on first preferences.

I wonder how often he mentioned Jez socialism when he was talking to investors. Same with Drakeford, though he voted for Corbyn before he was leader, I think.