Well, by now if you have seen the election results you will know that Labour bucked nation trends and gained seats in Nottingham, largely at our expense.

A good friend and colleague lost his seat in Aboretum by about 40 votes.  Recounts for that seat took up a lot of the night.  We failed to regain an independent seat in Bridge.  We didn’t win either of our target wards, although we just missed Berridge, the last ward to declare, by 20 votes.

Our total numbers have gone down from 8 to 6.  The Tories stayed the same on 7, although that figure hides one loss and one gain.  And just as our loss came at the expense of a hardworking colleague, the Tory gain also scalped a Labour councillor who did far more than her share of committees.  I was speaking to her at the count last night without realising she had lost.  She must have known at that point, but didn’t mention it.

And just to hammer home the fact that we weren’t having a good night, my glasses broke. There’s nothing to make you feel daft like having to sellotape them back together so that you can drive home.

Then a scant few hours’ sleep, then up to Chesterfield for another count, which went rather better.

We didn’t see the losses coming.  Not least because so many people we spoke to in many parts of the city told us they were not happy with Labour – an anger that had many reasons attached, many of them national.  And there were also a great deal of people angry about a recent redesign of the city’s main public square.

Just a few questions for my non-political friends.  Elections are obviously all-consuming for those of us whose livelihoods depend on the whim of the voter.  But to most normal people, elections are a rare event.

So for the normal people out there – what has been your experience of these elections?  Had many leaflets?  Read anything that’s changed your mind? Will you even be voting?   (Anything to 80% of you won’t be, so don’t feel shy!)

Late nite printing of “Good Morning” leaflets.  Oh, the irony.

The Eagles Greatest Hits Vol 1 playing on iTunes, when the computer isn’t overloaded with mailmerge and my ears not already deafened by two risos, a laser printer and the folding machine working at full tilt.

Lots of scary lines in the songs that mesh with what I’m doing right now

My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night

’this could be heaven or this could be hell’
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends

You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

What can you do when your dreams come true
And it’s not quite like you planned?

You’re afraid you might fall out of fashion
And you’re feeling cold and small

You don’t care about winning but you don’t want to lose

This night is gonna last forever.

Look at us baby, up all night

• Tidying my house
• Filing
• Cooking
• Eating vegetables
• Seeing my friends
• Getting double glazing quotes
• Booking holidays

I’m sure there’s plenty more.  How about you?

… This new paper from the Lib Dems is exactly how I feel about them! Some improvements, but many disappointments.

Many people were excited in 1997 when they too over. I’m afraid I was pessimistic even then.

For the sake of balance, after knocking the Tories, I need to talk about Labour too. I have to say that in both Nottingham and Chesterfield they are campaigning hard. They are getting quite a lot of leaflets out compared to what they usually do, and seem to be knocking on good few doors. We’re delivering more leaflets, but then we have more practice than they do.

Nottingham Labour’s latest leaflet, a version of which has turned up in many places across the city, promises that Labour councillors will deliver “a newsletter or a mailing” at least twice a year. In long-term Lib Dem wards – one of which has had FOCUS leaflets 6 times a year for the last 25 years, this hasn’t impressed many people.

I have to say, that in my direct experience of doorknocking over the last few weeks, the leaflets they are putting out don’t seem to be doing them much good.
A lot of people have had bad things to say about Labour nationally. In Nottingham, the issue of the refurbishment of Old Market Square has had an awful lot of people very exercised. I have had a number of people tell me that should Labour knock on their door, their poor candidates are due for a major earful.

And yet, there is still a small, and dwindling core of people who will still be voting Labour on Thursday. People who look at you sorrowfully, and say – “I’d like to vote Lib Dem, but we’re Labour.” People for whom the party affiliation is so deep that changing is inconceivable, no matter how far from their beliefs today’s Labour party has travelled.

Sometimes I wonder just what would have to happen for this group of people to change their minds. Illegal wars, renewing nuclear weapons, and the rest weren’t enough. Tony Blair eating babies on the Downing Street steps might do it?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Tories boasting about getting ready to quadruple their numbers and take over Nottingham City Council. At the time, I thought this was a tall order. Now I think it’s even less likely

A few days ago, I was at a planning meeting which had a strange feeling in the room, which the Tory rep there ascribed in an aside as Labour councillors in a marginal ward seeing the writing on the wall – Development Control will meet next without them, if the Tories manage to defeat them.

I have to say, if my experience of living in Tory/Lab marginal ward is anything to go by, the Tories aren’t going to be making many gains in Nottingham at all. I haven’t been watching my letterbox all that carefully, due to being a little busy, but I haven’t seen a single leaflet from either main party during April. As far as I know, no-one has knocked on my door. And no-one has sent me any target mail recently, either. None of my neighbours in my street or any nearby street have posters up for anyone.

In Chesterfield, the Conservatives have managed to field more candidates than they did in 2003. They have 9 candidates for 73 seats there.

It is a little dangerous to be writing this now, and not waiting til Friday when I will know for sure. But any sign of a mass Tory revival seems to be unlikely from my experience.

The last time the Tories were on a wave of success, I am reliably informed, was before I was born in 1977, a few years ahead of general election success in 1979. That was the last time they took power from Labour, nearly 30 years ago. In the major council elections of 77, the Tories held 48% of all council seats. For them to get to 48% again this year, they need to win a further 2,000 seats at this election. That seems a pretty tall order.

In order for the Tories to win Nottingham City, they need to get from 7 councillors to 28 in one big jump. That seems a pretty tall order too. They were confident they would do it, just a few weeks ago. I can’t see it myself. We’ll be watching at the end of the week.