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Well, the votes have been cast, verified, counted and results posted. The Selly Oak result was even better than I'd expected with a much improved majority over Tony Blair's labour candidate of nearly 900 votes. Being a candidate was even more nerve wracking than I can ever remember before. I've been a paper candidate when you stand but can only win if everyone else cocks up monumentally, or the opposition votes collapse so much that they no longer exist. I suspect it was because I was alone in being up for election, rather than the team of three in 2004. ...

Congratulations to fellow Selly Oak councillor Dave Radcliffe, who was re-elected to Birmingham City Council yesterday with an increased majority of 887. Thank you to everyone who supported him. The full result was: Dave Radcliffe (Lib Dem) - 2503 David Williams (Labour) - 1616 Barbara Wood (Con) - 1042 Peter Tinsley (Green) - 554 Paul Billingham (BNP) - 328 Details of all the Birmingham

This piece on ConservativeHome is actually pretty balanced. My feeling is that the scandals have actually helped Labour. Politics became interesting to some people we weren't expecting to vote.

Today's House Points from Liberal Democrat News. Higher benchmarks While assorted ministers were clinging on to their careers last week, the work of the Commons went on. Thursday saw questions on education. Vince Cable complained about the government's attitude to adult education. More and more resources are going to vocational training for 16 to 18-year-olds, even though employers are often happy to pay for it themselves. At the same time, funding for broader non-vocational courses is being cut. These have traditionally been enjoyed by older people, but figures show a 25 per cent fall in the number signing ...

Well I must admit I am slightly disappointed in the overall increase in the number of Liberal Democrat councillors and Councils as I had hoped for net gains of 30 and 3 respectively. I expected that we would lose some seats to the Tories but had hoped we would gain far more Labour seats. On closer analysis I note we lost 12 seats to Labour in Islington. This one Council, therefore, accounts for the bulk of my disappointment. Then I notice we gained 16 seats from the Tories in Richmond-on-Thames! Clearly there are particular circumstances in these councils for ...

Today the home page of the Shropshire Star has the following headline and photograph side by side: Clarke axed after polls horror

In case you missed it, Chris Davies, the Lib Dem leader in Europe, has resigned. The train of events that led to his resignation begin with these comments that he made on his website attacking Israel. What struck many - including myself - as being unacceptable was the following: "We should be honest. These are the racist policies of apartheid yet Israel continues to pose as a victim. "I visited Auschwitz last year, and it is very difficult to understand why those whose history is one of such terrible oppression appear not to care that they have themselves become oppressors." ...

Actually, I do not think that the Liberal Democrats did all that badly last night despite the gloom and doom merchants in the media and elsewhere spinning it badly for us. It is true that we may not have met expectations but then really even the Tories did not do enough to convince anybody that they can win the next General Election. After all we made a net gain of Councils (two, if you take into account that we will continue to hold Islington on the Mayor's casting vote) and of Councillors. All in all, the resilience of the Labour ...

See the press release on the Haringey Council election results on my main website.

The local election results in Norwich yesterday were, frankly, disappointing. 6 Lib Dem losses: 4 to Greens and 2 to Labour; 3 Holds; and no gains. The Council remains in no overall control, and we wait to see what happens next in terms of who will run the council.

Now the elections are over, and I've a bit of time to devote to blogging, can I just say how much I enjoy this Scottish satirical site , for example this piece.

How difficult is it to conduct an Election Count - well in Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Barking quite difficult it would appear.

Yesterday’s local council elections in England were bad for Labour, but not catastrophic. The spin Machine had forecasted losses of up to 350 seats and losing nearer 250, by contrast, looks moderately respectable. Interestingly enough David Cameron’s Tories failed to make any sort of breakthrough in the crucial northern metropolitan areas of Liverpool, Manchester and [...]

I hate to resort to cliché to describe the Lib Dems’ local election results, but I’ve had 6 hours sleep over the past two days, so cliché it will have to be: it’s a bit of a curate’s egg. (Of course, the joy of local election results is that they are so variegated, such a patch-work quilt, that party activists can read whatever they like into them. But this is my take…) One the positive side, we

The Liberal Democrats are now the single largest party in Oxford - for the first time ever - after making two net gains from Labour in last night's City Council elections. The make-up of the Council, compared with the pre-election standing of the parties (in brackets), is: Lib Dem 19 (17) +2 Labour 17 (21) -4 Green 8 (7) +1 IWCA 4 (3) +1 So, Oxford continues to be a hung Council, which will

Primary Care Trusts Q:To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much money had been committed by each primary care trust to purchasing private services at the end of December 2005; and how much has been budgeted by each primary care trust for such activity for the financial year 2005–06.(John Hemming) A:The information requested is not collected centrally. (Liam Byrne, Parliamentary

I have just spent an hour at the official opening of the Swansea Cyrenians' drop in and healthy living centre for homeless people. The centre has been situated in a wonderfully renovated church. St. Matthews was built over 800 years ago by the Knights of St. John as a hospice - a link back to my time in Malta last week. It is a listed building but it has fallen into disuse over the last decade. The Cyrenians have used a whole range of funding to restore the building and the graveyard to their former glory. They have partioned it ...

Mildly amused to see Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes offering up a new title in the Money for Old Rope category of British publishing. Their "Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze" really goes for the heart of the scandals of this government and will shake the establishment to its foundations- Yours for £7.99. Err.. NO Their definition of Labour scandals is just the tittle-tattle. The REAL Scandals are things that the News of the World would never write about, because their readership don't care and it takes too many pages of newsprint to explain the scope of the ...

In a moment of Egyptology worthy of a scene in Carry On Cleo, Pharoah Tutankhamen's hitherto missing penis has been found. Pith helmet tip to Inkycircus.

I was about to write goodbye Darling as the first news I read was that Douglas Alexander had taken over the Transport and Scottish brief from Alistair Darling in the reshuffle today. But I've since found that the Edinburgh South West MP has Become the new Trade and Industry Secretary. Other Scots on the move: John Reid is new Home Secretary Des Browne replaces him as Defence Secretary Ian

Well, my assault on Westminster City Hall wasn’t entirely successful. Labour held Church Street Ward, with the Respec’ party’s Yvonne Ridley mopping up some protest votes. She may have got more votes than me, but at least I’m not a barmy, ranting, intolerant, hypocritical hag with the most textbook case of Stockholm Syndrome in recent history. I'm not bitter! In fact I hope everyone will learn more about what she has to say. My favourite quote from her recently might be her response to a young Muslim singer who says he's proud to be British... "How can anyone be proud ...

Tony Blair has been reshuffling his Cabinet after taking a drubbing in yesterday's local elections. He has sacked Charles Clarke and stripped John Prescott of his departmental brief in a wide-ranging reshuffle aimed at reinvigorating his government after heavy losses in yesterday's local elections. John Reid is the new Home Secretary, with Des Browne replacing him as Defence Secretary. I will post a full list later when I see one.

Well - it was very close! Massive Lib Dem gains, but not quite enough to take control of Haringey Council - Labour majority cut to just three (30-27 - no other parties have any councillors) with Lib Dems making 11 gains. We also topped the vote across the borough - adding up the top votes in each ward - and actually now have councillors in a majority of the wards in Haringey. So - very close!

After the calls for his resignation appeared to fall on Tony's deaf ear the big news today is that Charles Clarke has gone. John 'Bulldog' Reid has taken over at the Home Office, I'm waiting for the outcry for a Scot having a say over so many matters that are devolved. John Prescott has retained his title as Deputy Prime Minster but lost his departmental duties, no word yet as to how this will be

Last night's Wolverhampton Count went on until the early hours of this morning, the Count was badly run (again) with a two wait when effectively nothing was done (they say they were trying to verify some postal votes). We almost did it in Park ward and held our second place in St Peters ward.

They've finally put the results up on the council website so it is now confirmed that all three of the LibDem candidates in Hale End and Highams Park have been elected. This area has been Tory for as long as anyone can remember, at least one of their candidates has been well embedded there for many years. The final result is: John Beanse (LibDem) - 1617 Noel Penstone (LibDem) - 1462 Sheila

Share of the vote: up. Seats: much the same as before. Why? It's the system. In a first past the post system we can significantly increase our vote share in seats we hold and in developing wards without seeing significant increases in seat numbers. Under this system we can't expect a smooth line of increasing votes translating into seats. FPP produces (this my theory) 'punctuated equilibrium' in party growth: periods of apparent stasis (last night) or sudden jumps in representation, such as the general election. The apparent stasis masks the fact that our ...

There's no need to gloat, but it's fun anyway. A look back at the Lion's Roars: A frog in the roarThe Lion gets stuckThe Lion, the baboon and the elephant The Lion roars about the media The Lion roars againThe Lion's first roar So, with Charles Clarke gone, I'm going to have to come up with new material for this blog. Bugger. Update: The Lion just has to Roar one last time doesn't he.

Charles Clarke has been axed as Home Secretary. No tears will be shed here. Big question now is - will the replacement be any better?

Barnet has swung to the right and the Conservatives have been given licence to slash and burn Council Services. The smear campaign waged by the Tories against both Labour and Lib Dem candidates with racial slurs has obviously worked them a treat. It has actually made me feel un-welcome in my own c

Up at the crack of dawn yesterday. Going round the three Kentish Town polling stations - the turnout was really encouraging. Noticed several just turned 18 years ex Ackland Burley students voting for the first time - was impressed they actually voted. Winning was definitely in the air though through some local feedback there was a likelihood of some split votes. Felt like a dead man or rather woman, walking back from the committee room, getting home at 11 pm. Couldn't sleep - loads of coffee to keep me awake. Was rivetted by the TV - Just had to ...

My appearance on BBC's Mastermind was last night. Recorded it back in January so it felt like ages ago. It was actually a fun thing to do and great to have a reason to re read all the Ian Rankin novels (new one coming out this October I am told). I'll certainly try to enter again - there are lots of other authors I'd like to re read! Actually came second.. won the first round but one of the others was a lot better at general knowledge.

Well after yesterday’s lie in I went and spoilt it by not sleeping all night but arrived at work this morning refreshed. Obviously I couldn’t go to sleep until both the English council areas I’ve lived in had declared. Kingston was the later of the two to declare. Of the three wards I lived in Tolworth and Hook Rise and Chessington North and Hook both declared a full slate of Lib Dems. The first

After nearly six hours in an airless sports hall, as the officials struggled with the new automatic counting machines, the results were... well, "as you were". Looking across the country it is hard to avoid feeling a bit flat. Certainly not much really bad news- though losing Islington was a disappointment clearly- on the other hand, holding Kingston and Sutton, taking Richmond and making overall progress is not too bad. Knocking the government into third place in the national share of the vote is also reasonable. Labour, however did not melt down- though they had a pretty horrid night over ...

It's not easy to reverse a decline in your number of seats - but Southend Lib Dems have done that last night and are back to being the second largest party. Although the BBC website currently shows one Lib Dem gain, they actually made two - including the seat of the Tory leader Anna Waite. So well done!

Pretty tired after yesterday's polling day and last nights election count. And the bad news is that, as I had feared, the results show that if you smear someone enough times and make up enough stories you can beat them. Speke Garston - my own ward - now has a new Labour councillor after the defeat last night of Frank Roderick. During the campaign he was alleged to have done all sorts of things. Despite some of the claims being demonstrably false, Labour carried on repeating them. I argued against us responding in kind... I ...

The Liberal Democrats moved from third to second place in the mayoral contest, and gained ten new councillors, meaning that Labour has lost its overall control of the Council.

Today is a day of apologies, given and demanded. The most prominent of these is of course the indignant Peter Hain, who is positively apoplectic at the very suggestion that it might have been him who offered Peter Law a peerage not to stand at the last General Election. It is impossible to know for certain of course what is the truth in this matter. What does seem evident however is that Elfyn Llwyd has completely bungled his attempt to pin the blame on the Secretary of State for Wales and has been put on the defensive by his ...

Olivers Battery & Badger Farm Liberal Democrats (Brian Collin) 837 Conservative 829 Labour ...

An initial glance at the results for Birmingham shows the Labour vote fragmenting. For example they lost the Moseley and Kings Heath seat to the Lib Dems. Labour had only 31% of the vote. However, the opposition to Labour was fragmented and we had about 33% of the vote - enough to win, however. Because of the boundary changes comparisons need to be made to the all up elections, but that is

Sue Baker, Ian and I were re-elected in Chessington North and Hook. Overall, the balance of seats on Kingston Council is: Liberal Democrat: 25 Conservative: 21 Labour: 2 Many thanks to all of you who supported Liberal Democrats in the election. For full details of all the wards and elected councillors go to the Kingston Council...

For now (as it's 3am) my template is a little screwed. It seems that when I moved a pipe | from the left to the right the bottom half of my template just disappeared.When I went to check what happened, even more got stolen.I've rebuilt bits so the HTML is valid, but stuff like latest news, archives and the LibDemBlog box will need to be added again.

Election news: We're pretty pleased with the election results in Rayleigh. Chris Black and Chris Lumley both held their seats with increased majorities. This was particularly good for Chris Lumley because the Tories tried very hard to defeat him, bringing in Tories from other parts of Rayleigh to canvass against him. Elsewhere in Rayleigh, Pat Putt, Jackie Dillnutt, Keith Budden and Mark

Ward: Walcot App Ref: 06/01211/FUL Parish: Registered: ...

The Lincoln Liberal Democrats celebrate getting their second councillor on to Lincoln Council.ME!Thanks to all those who voted for me, and to all those who went out and delivered my leaflets. The result in full Cullen (LD) 482 Withers (Lab) 308Heaton-Harris (Con) 304

The more observant of you will have noticed a new button on my sidebar just below the Lib Dem Blogs button. This button takes you to Pipeline which claims to now have 340,000 members and is attempting to negotiate a discount with a major fuel retailer with the aim of offering its members a discount of between 5p and 7p a litre. While this scheme is getting off the ground it may be worthwhile visiting petrolprices.com to see what the best deal is in your area. All in all worth considering as I start my 400 mile round trip to ...