IT was never going to be good news for Labour - but it could have been worse. In the end, there will be relief among Labour ranks that it wasn't total humiliation, and disappointment for the Tories that there weren't further gains.

Tony Blair can take some consolation from the fact that it wasn't the complete rout he half expected, and that the Tory candidate in Trimdon Grange made an unwelcome piece of political history by failing to register a single vote.

But while he and the other party leaders inevitably spun the results in the most positive way possible, it was an unquestionably a bad night for democracy.

The shambles which descended on the Scottish elections, with 100,000 ballot papers declared invalid, will undermine public confidence right across the British electoral system.

Electronic counting machines that didn't work, confusion over how to fill in ballot papers for two different elections, and problems over postal votes meant that 100,000 Scots were denied their democratic voice and that is simply not good enough.

Of course, voting opportunities have to be maximised if democracy is to thrive. But most of all, the voting system must be user-friendly, foolproof and trusted. In Scotland, that proved not to be the case.

And at a time when the world of politics desperately needs to find ways to overcome apathy and cynicism, an outrage of this kind is as unwelcome as a Tory vote in Trimdon.