Saturday 5th May

Of course we do expect our politicians to always paint themselves in the best light possible, but I always think that one of the most amusing aspects of election nights is listening to the politicians trying desperately to explain that actually it wasn’t that bad.  Thursday night was typical; not only were the Tories saying that it was simply mid-term disillusionment with the Government, and had nothing to do with their policies, but also declaring that unless Labour won at least one thousand councilors from them it was a bad result for Labour.  As I write this the votes are still being counted but it does look like a very good result for Labour winning back cities like Birmingham and Norwich, and look on course to win over 700 new councilors.  By raising the bar of achievement for another party it is as if you are saying – yes, you won, but really given how hopeless we are, you should have done much better.   Labour almost attempted this after the 2010 General Election, but hardly had the heart after their own disastrous result.

The saddest faces of the night (apart from Ken in London, which I suspect he will lose despite a good vote for Labour in the London Assembly) were reserved for the LibDems.  They really had no answer for why they did so badly, except that they couldn’t accept the bleeding obvious.  The public expected the Tories to be nasty, even if some of them still voted for them, but the LibDems have always seemed so reasonable and, well, honest – compared to the other two.  Then at the first chance they jump into bed with their idealogical enemy and ditch almost everything they ever stood for.  They are rightly perceived as letting the Tories get away with right wing policies when only a third of the country voted for that.  Watching Danny Alexander twist and turn, saying that the public understood that hard choices had to be made, and somehow that was why they voted against the Libdems.  It was incredible, oh, and highly enjoyable too.