The political map of England turned blue in the early hours of Friday as results continued to pour in and the Conservative continued with their winning march of remaining Labour strongholds. It was disaster of an unimaginable scale for Labour, the Labour share of votes shrunk to mere 23% with Labour 159 councillors, Conservatives 1330 and Liberal Democrats 439. The BNP won their first seat in North East. In a result related reshuffle of the cabinet, a number of ministers resigned, some took voluntary retirement and some retired to spend more time with their families. While Tories were celebrating, the Labour was licking their wounds. The weakness of Gordon Brown was apparent from the fact that he was not even able to place his favourites where he wanted. If these results are repeated nationwide, the Conservative under David Cameron will form the next Government with thumping majority.

On European front, the situation for Labour was no rosier and by Monday morning the story of Labour meltdown was not as significant as that of BNP winning two European Parliament seats. They now have a stage at the heart of the European Parliament to spread venom against minorities. It is interesting to note UKIP have come second beating Labour into third place. The success of BNP in Labour strongholds suggests that while Labour’s core support stayed with it, most of its soft support has deserted it to the BNP. Can it be concluded that Labour harbour racist votes and as and when they get an opportunity they (BNP voters) leave Labour in droves.

From local prospective, in Ealing, the swing against Labour is 6.4% and in favour of Conservatives 2.7%.

The national final position of parties can be viewed here.

Gurcharan