I don't think Morgan should go unless he wants to, the Welsh result isn't too bad given we're ten years into a UK government and 8 years into a Welsh one.

In terms of his position as First Minister, McConnell won't necessarily have a choice, it depends on which way the smaller parties jump, particularly the Lib Dems.

A SNP, Lib Dem, Green coalition is a big possibility if they can fudge the independence question.

I can't imagine McConnell would stay on as leader of the opposition.

I actually I think they did pretty well in Wales. They gained Cardiff North by a landslide. Their win in Preseli was by a comfortable margin too. They won Carmarthen W & Pembrokeshire, etch from third place. Their right wing and possibly homophobic and bigot candidate won Clwyd West. They also cut substantially a number of Labour majorities (like Valley of Clwyd or Gower).
Then in 2003 they won lots of list seats and so those gains produced list losses and so they ended up unchanged. But I wouldn't under-estimate their good performance in some constituencies-

Coming from you, I find this post somewhat strange.

Does the last paragraph represent a U-turn on your part??? Have you, as a result of this electoral set-back (which could have been MUUUUCH worse), ditched Blairism???? Are you now opposed to the Iraq war???? I may have gotten this wrong, but that is how I understood your post!!!!

With allies like you, I wonder whether Blair genuinely needs opponents! I can, on my part, assure you that, even if McDonnell performs poorly, I, and other McDonnellites with me, will keep standing by his side!

We increased our vote on 2006 by 1%, which no one predicted, we had thought that we would get 20-24% which means we pulled some back in the last few days.

We weren't wiped out in Scotland by the SNP, which was widely predicted, the fat is that the SNP cannot form an administration, even with the Liberals. In fact they can't even do it with the Tories, so they will probably need a coalition of Greesna dn Liberals. This is fantastic news, because it's clear that the people rejected the SNP and thier rhetoric. It also means we are better at getting the vote out in Scotland than England.

In wales we only lost a Net of 3 seats, again, we were predicted to lose many more than that. we can still form a coalition administration, and we have recovered in the South at the expense of Plaid in places like Rhondda and Islwyn.

We did reasonably well in Northern England, in Liverpool, Manchester and others. We did well because the Tories missed out in key councils, like Blackburn, Bolton, Barrow and are still not even a bean in Oldham, where thay had a seat until 1997.

In the South, it really wasnt plain sailing for the Tories, they lost Hastings, did not do as well as expected in key wards in Canterbury, lost Eastbourne, diddnt take Bristol ad lost Thurrock.

We managed to increase our seats in southampton, Slough, Thurrock and held on in Reading. It was the Liberals who imploded, they got hammered in scotland and wales, and there were some really bad liberal results in England, in Bournemouth, Windsor, Sheppey and elsewhere.

in my experience, we generally lost because we diddnt get our vote out. now this is not so bad, because you would hope that they would come out in general elections, and they are still Labour voters, they havent changed allegiances, but just stayed at home. Our job is to get these people back to the ballot boxes, and get out our core vote in the way the tories have for the last 2 years.

The Tories didn't achieve what they wanted in the North and just got 40% of the share. If it was a general election, it would be different. Voters would think twice.

It wasn't quite as bad as expected, but nothing really to be happy about. It's not the end of the world.

The Tories failed to make any major breakthroughs and the Lib Dems for me were the story of the night/day. They did quite awfully.

Rhodri Morgan should go. God only knows how he got there in the first place. The man is awful. I feel desperately sad for McConnell however, although it looks like he'll have to go.

I saw an interview with Mcdonnell last night and I was impressed. He could have used it to really turn the knife, but he was fair and loyal to his party. I obvioulsy don't want him to win, but he went up a mark for me.

If the party can unite and get behind brown when he wins, we can turn the tide. It doesn't have to be the way of the Tories, we can stay strong, stick to our principles and win together.  

Anything to wipe then odious smirks off the Tories.

Francis Fraude was on top form last night. For some reason, whichever studio he went to, he was allowed to just ramble and gloat for minutes on end without interruption.

We could say "bad, but not as bad as it could have been" on Friday morning. But after Friday's results came in, it became hopeless to try to argue that.

For the first time, I think we might see a Cameron government (rather than a hung Parliament) after the next election.