In the most shocking election result since, well, ever actually, Labour took a kicking and the BNP doubled their seats. I think this must be the biggest election surprise I've ever seen.

The BNP say this proves they have become a legitimate party. Leader Nick Griffith also lashed out at the big two saying:

When you look at some our results elsewhere in the country where we've hammered the Conservatives as well, this is a revolt against the entire liberal political elite by the hardworking people of Britain who resent being taxed to have our country transformed.

A rather insightful statement given that the Tories are the tax cut party and are only liberal in the sense that they're right of centre instead of far right.

However there was good news in the whole election. The Greens gained 18 seats and give hope to all of us. Possibly more interesting though was the Lib Dems beating Labour into second place - extrapolating yesterday's results give us the Tories on 40%, Lib Dems 27% and Labour 26%. The Lib Dems have finally risen to become the nations second party - even if they do owe some of that to Labour's incompetence.

Unfortunately the Lib Dems will still struggle to convert this success into results in the general election. At the local level people feel their vote makes more of a difference, and are happier voting outside the big two. Unfortunately come the general election too many people will ignore these percentages and stick to the traditional two party view - Labour or Conservative.

But still, the Lib Dems did it! The Greens did it! Our political options are becoming broader, and after years of this swing to the right the left is coming back.