In local elections in the United Kingdom the ruling Labour party has suffered another bad defeat,  losing control of councils that in some cases they have controlled since the 1970’s. The party is rapidly on the way to making the losses by the GOP look mild in comparison.

Four years ago when these same councils were elected the Conservative party got 34%, the Liberals got 30% and the Liberal Democrats got 25%. This time around the Conservatives moved up to 36%, the Lib Dems got 28% and the Labour party is third with 24%.

Overall Labour lost 272 seats, with the Conservatives picking up 230 of them.

More results from elections to the European Parliament will come out this weekend and most expect more bad news for PM Gordon Brown.

A national election must be held by June 2010 and most observers think it is unlikely that Labour can recover by then.