IT wasn't quite the disaster that it might have been, but it still wasn't at all good for Labour and departing Prime Minister Tony Blair.

It was their worst performance in Wales for 90 years; their worst in Scotland for 50. In England, they are left with their lowest number of councillors for 30 years.

While they clung to power in Wales, they seem to have lost it in Scotland. The Nationalist success there will present incoming Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a springboard only to an awkward confrontation with his countrymen.

The reasons for Labour recording just 27 per cent of the vote - up slightly on last year - obviously revolve around the leadership and Iraq.

Because Mr Blair has been on his way out for so long, the party has become becalmed, waiting for the new leader to breathe life into its sails. With nothing new domestically to inspire, the same old horrible bloodshed in the Gulf has dominated the electorate's thoughts.

For the Conservatives, it wasn't quite the triumph that it might have been, but it was still very good.

They gained nearly 900 seats, and nationally are the only party that counts in local government. Their 40 per cent share of the vote was the same as last year and they won a little support in the North, picking up Chester and South Ribble councils.

In the North-East their pickings were slim. Five councillors gained in Darlington and three in Sunderland, but two lost in Redcar and Cleveland. They did win their first town councillor in Willington, but their Trimdon representative did not fare so well.

They do, though, increasingly look like challengers.

Unlike the LibDems. It must be deeply worrying for them that - despite solid performances in Durham and Newcastle, and progress in the Wear Valley and Hurworth - they are getting no credit nationally for their steadfast opposition to the war. This malaise must be down to their leader, who possesses none of the youthful vigour of David Cameron.

But let's not forget that these are local elections.

Darlington's Labour leader John Williams, for instance, must be mightily relieved that his council's presentational unpopularity has not driven him from office.

No other council in the region has managed to so annoy its townspeople that a vociferous minority of them demand a directly-elected mayor - but Labour's survival must at least indicate an acceptance of the Pedestrian Heart scheme.

Ironically, while Darlington pushed on with a controversial town centre development and kept its leader, Sedgefield voted out its leader - Bob Fleming - largely because a hoped-for £25m redevelopment of Newton Aycliffe town centre has not materialised.

In Ferryhill, there was similar success for Independents because Labour has not delivered redevelopment.

In Wear Valley, threatened ward closures at Bishop Auckland hospital and parking charges in Crook cost Labour so dear that the council now hangs in a coalition.

And no one can possibly explain the shenanigans in Richmondshire.

It is a council in meltdown. The Tories have prospered, although there has been a confusing blurring of the lines with the formerly ruling Independents, while the party which has consistently opposed the unpopular new headquarters plan, the LibDems, is now further away from power than ever.

Two final notes. Apart from in Chilton, where it is very active, the British National Party made no progress in the region.

Lastly, turn-out ranged from the disappointing 30 per cent to the okay-ish 40 per cent. Except in the rural St John's Chapel ward of Wear Valley where an enormous 60 per cent turned out to vote for, it has to be said, their independent councillor John Shuttleworth.