The BBC are reporting that the Lib-Dems won only one council. In fact, we won four, and lost two. Liverpool was also reported as a loss, but we won exactly half the seats, and would have a casting vote. Technically, the result was no overall control, but then an "Independent Labour" candidate joined the Lib Dems, so now we have a majority of two.

I'm particularly pleased about that, having met a couple of our city councillors at conference in Liverpool. I stayed with a cabinet member (as part of a fund-raising B&B scheme), and we went out for drinks with Warren Bradley, the council leader on the Friday night. Here's a photo of me (left) with Warren. We exchanged stories about how exciting politics was in the 80s - his campaigns against Hatton's army sounded more hairy than my efforts at the peace camps.

Working for the enemy

Before the election results were announced, Ken Livingston offered jobs to his three main rivals. His losing the election shows us why he did that. It's easy to make the offer, the electorate think you're being reasonable.

But, if you take the job, then you can't really campaign against your employer at the next election. It's said that you can't win elections, you can only lose them by doing a bad job. Well, in that event, poor performance reflects on the whole team. So, in this example, Ken was invited back into the Labour party a few years ago. He accepted that invitation, and Gordon Brown's cock-ups have reflected on Ken.