1. As I write the BBC table says Conservatives have more councils and more councillors than they did 24 hours ago. (By the way they have Worcester down as Con Hold but it is a Con Gain.)
This is a quite astonishing achievement for the Party and its councillors. Even the final results show modest net losses the results are much better than conventional political wisdom would indicate. I was certainly expect some big gains to the Conservatives from the Lib Dems but that these would only partially offset the much bigger losses to Labour. If we have results last contested in 2007 and end up with only modest net losses, or even net gains, this is gravity defying.
2. There remain huge number of Labour free zones. There are simply too many to list. This should be remembered amidst the talk of continued Tory free zones in some northern cities. The big losses for the Lib Dems in Sheffield and Liverpool has not yet resulted in Tory representation there – but it does give a greater opportunity for the future.
3. The Stoke-on-Trent result where the Conservatives lost six out of eight councillors indicates that Conservatives going into coalition with Labour is probably not a terribly good idea. Also significant here with the wipeout for the BNP losing all their five councillors.
4. Defeated Lib Dem councillors should not be allowed to purely blame the Government. They should really blame themselves. In Liverpool they self destructed. In Sheffield they have run such a high tax, high spending council that it is difficult to see how Labour control could be any more Socialist.
5. There has been a lot of variation in the resullts. Some predictions suggested the Conservatives might lose Dartford. We actually gained three seats from Labour. They said if it was a really bad night we would lose Trafford. But we won it without losing single seat.
6. The results so far don't indicate a breakthrough for UKIP and generally the "others" have been squeezed – perhaps hurt by higher turnout due to the AV referendum.