UK Elections. The Results Begin in Come In

At around 09:45 on 4/5/12 I'm up. Counting in Scotland has only just begun while counting in London has started but then stopped again due to a power cut. Across England and Wales though 99 of 181 councils have declared results. Obviously this picture still needs to be filled in a bit before it's possible to draw conclusions. However nationally the vote seems to show a moderate swing from the Conservative Party who lost 3 points to the Labour Part who gained 4. The Liberal Democrats seem to have remained where they are. The way that these votes have been distributed though mean that the Labour Party have gained 470 seats and gained control of 22 councils including Birmingham - Britain's second city.

In the Mayoral referendum the four cities to have declared so far; Nottingham, Coventry, Bradford and Manchester have all rejected the idea. Bristol, Newcastle, Leeds, Wakefield, Sheffield and Birmingham are yet to declare amid a reported low turn out of between 25-35%.