I don't think anyone was suggesting that national results were great for the Labour Party. To answer your point Dave, there are several reasons including (but not limited to): Recent scandals (John Prescott/Charles Clarke etc.), Tony Blair, Third term government etc., but I think we all knew it was likely that the results wouldn't be great. My question was why were the results reversed here in Manchester?
Peter - yes the results were great in Manchester Withington/South Manchester for the Labour party. The stats are a bit difficult since there were three candidates from most parties at the local elections in 2004, but taking the best result (i.e. highest number of votes) for a candidate from each party against the results this time the results for wards in Manchester Withington were:
Burnage: Labour +12.73%, Lib Dem -10.46%
Chorlton: Labour + 5.29%, Lib Dem +2.98%
Chorlton Park: Labour +0.77%, Lib Dem +6.42%
Didsbury East: Labour +2.85%, Lib Dem -2.46%
Didsbury West: Labour +4.61%, Lib Dem + 0.13%
Old Moat: Labour +5.07%, Lib Dem -0.44%
Withington: Labour +8.93%, Lib Dem -10.54%
Overall in 2004, the Lib Dems had 45.79% of the vote and Labour had 29.49%. In 2006, Labour has 35.81% and the Lib Dems have 43.37%. I reckon that means Labour increased it's share of the vote by 6.31% and the Lib Dem share dropped by 2.42%.
While there is more to do, these election results are very positive with every single ward except Chorlton Park (Mr Leech's ward) reducing the Lib Dem majority (or increasing the Labour majority in the case of Old Moat and Chorlton).
