Election night from Liverpool

Up in Liverpool this weekend - since my kids school is closed for two days for training days/the local elections.

My first information up here is that Labour look like they are going to have a lot of trouble here. Long faces reported in the Labour camp.

My Brother nipped down to vote just before the polls closed here in Toxteth and reported that the roll he saw had lots of names not yet crossed out - so a very low turnout. In a place like this a lot of people will just have got their first salary slips with more tax on, and they won't be happy.

Add that to the £1.25/ltr I had to pay for Diesel on the way up and everyone feels fairly worried about the over weight government - heavy taxes and incompetence.

Just listened to a shrill Tessa Jowell on BBC News 24 - why does she bother ?

I just can't understand why the politicians can't be more candid on election night.

12:10am Looks like a bad night for the Lib Dems at the moment - but still they may be able to claim a good defence of Liverpool - we'll see.

12:12am The BBC have the Neanderthal man Conservative graphics again - they just don't learn do they ? Privatise the bastards and let them have money purchase pension schemes like the rest of us !

12:22am Lib Dems doing better in some areas - it was ever so.

12:27am Now we have the BBC's survey of an opinion poll on all sorts of things. I see Conservative home is predicting over 200 seats. And the Conservative have just won Nueaton ! Tessa Jowell's is not about to try and explain it - she's just waffling figures and words right now... Ah she's almost blaming the Labour council there - after 34 years ! She's saying they may have been complacent -who needs friends like her ?

12:42am Gordon Brown should send Tessa Jowell a bunch of flowers tomorrow morning. She's trying to put a good gloss on the unfolding Labour disaster. I bet there weren't many volunteers for her seat tonight.
12:46am They've just called Southampton for the Conservatives !! Fantastic. The Lib Dem and Labour council leaders lost their seats I think.

12:49am Tessa's just blotted her copy book. She says nobody thinks that the Labour government is taking people for granted. Nick Robinson has just staired back in utter disbelief ! Its been pointed out to Tessa that not everyone agrees with her - its not everyone - thye have Charles Kennedy to prove it !

12:56am Time for bed - I'll watch a bit more, but catch up in the morning.

Update: Whilst I slept high drama was unfolding in Liverpool with Labour and the Greens picking up Lib Dem council seats but then at the last minute, after the results were called a former Labour councillor, who had become an independant, defected to the Lib Dems ! ( I bet Gordon wishes he'd at least been able to talk about winning Liverpool this morning - this can't improve his mood at all - wouldn't want ot be his mobile phone today ! ). The Liverpool Echo has the story here ....

PS I'm told the good performance by the Greens is down to hard work by their current Green councillor - doing the sort of stuff at a local level that the Lib Dems only put in Focus leaflets and then forget about.