So, the results are in and they are a mixed bag. 

The Tories did about as well as they would have expected.  They improved slightly, but not spectacularly as a number of potential (or even regular) Tory voters will have voted for UKIP. 

Onto UKIP – I think they were the big winners on the night, but I doubt this will translate into general elections gains.  Many of these voters will vote Conservative in the general election, if not to support the Tories, then to ward off the lingering threat of a LibLab coalition keeping the Tories from power and taking us further into Europe.

The other smaller party grabbing headlines, the BNP, did well in terms of gaining two seats – but this wasn’t quite the level of success touted in the previous weeks (talk of 6-12 seats).  The BNP’s gains can largely be attributed to Labour’s failure – it was the Labour heartlands that saw the BNP sneak in. 

The Labour Party has to face the facts that they are losing ground amongst white, working class, males – and why shouldn’t theybe losing this voter group?  Labour MPs often give off the impression that much of Britain’s problems come from this group – or from white, middle class, males.  Or worse – they ignore white, working class, men completely.  Whilst the Labour Party bickers over expenses and Brown’s lack of charisma, they should be homing in on this group and addressing some of the problems here.  If Labour believes that the present level of immigration is perfectly fine, then they need to tell this group why that is the case.  If they do not, they need to do something about it.  They ought to tackle these issues head on as, unlike UKIP, the BNP may well be a factor in a general election; and the Labour Party needs white, working class, male votes.

The Liberal Democrats are not going to pick up this section of voters – what can the Liberal Democrats possibly offer them, PR?   Ha!  The Liberal Democrats seem to be facing their own problems in terms of vote share – those who would normally have voted LibDem seem to be drifting towards the Green Party.  The Greens gained quite an impressive vote share, but only picked up 2 MEPs; like the LibDems they too would like to implement a PR system and it is easy to see why a section of traditional LibDem voters would be quite at home with Caroline Lucas et al.  The LibDems may not lose out to the Greens at a general election – but the local council results showed large patches of blue in formally yellow blocs.  I guess Clegg isn’t enough to appeal to those who may swing Conservative, but perhaps he puts off LibDems who may vote Green?