Party/Councils(+/-)/Councillors(+/-)

Conservative/68(+11)/1783(+299)
Labour/28(-18)/1347(-306)
Liberal Democrat/13(+1)/906(+3)
British National Party/0(0)/31(+26)
Green/0(0)/29(+20)
Residents Association/0(0)/22(-9)
Respect-Unity Coalition/0(0)/13(+12)
Liberal/0(0)/8(-2)
Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern/0(0)/5(+1)
Socialist Alternative/0(0)/3(0)
UK Independence Party/0(0)/1(0)
Others/0(0)/105(-47)
No overall control/66(+6)

Liberal Democrat controlled councils:

Cambridge (hold)
Eastleigh (hold)
Kingston-upon-Thames (hold)
Liverpool (hold)
Newcastle-upon-Tyne (hold)
Pendle (hold)
Richmond-upon-Thames (gain from Con)
South Lakeland (gain from NOC)
St. Albans (gain from NOC)
Stockport (hold)
Sutton (hold)
Three Rivers (hold)
Watford (hold)

Liberal Democrat council losses:

Islington (NOC)
Milton Keynes (NOC)

Results still to be confirmed:

Newham (Defending party: Labour)

The fairly safe Holyrood seat of Moray was retained by the SNP in a by-election caused by the death of Margaret Ewing. Richard Lochhead managed to increase the Nationalists' share of the vote to 12,653, with the Conservatives in second place. It was a decent result however for Liberal Democrat candidate Linda Gorn, who managed to win an additional 2,000 votes and leap-frog Labour into third place. Another sign that the public is becoming increasingly fed up with Labour, this was the second by-election disaster in just a few months following the spectacular Lib Dem win in Dunfermline. The Lib Dems were also just 1,000 votes behind the Tories.

Scottish Parliamentary by-election, Moray, 27th April 2006

Richard Lochead (Scottish National Party) 12,653
Mary Scanlon (Scottish Conservatives) 6,268
Linda Gorn (Scottish Liberal Democrats) 5,310
Sandy Keith (Scottish Labour) 2,696
Meliville Brown (NHS First) 493

Three years late, £389 million over budjet, and already the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood is dropping to pieces. All jokes about the loose beam swinging precariously over the Tories, it is scandalous that a building which cost so mush of the taxpayes money has hardly lasted two years. It has been a farce since the very beginning. The construction of this hideous building took far longer than it should have, and since opening it has been plagued by problem after problem. Now MSPs are running about like headless chickens trying to find alternative accomodation, with Holyrood unlikely to re-open for another couple of months. Those in charge of the construction should be held accountable for their shoddy building work, and should be ashamed that they have let the people of Scotland down.

Since the deregulation of bus services, many vital routes rely on public subsidy to operate. In my area, First Glasgow has recently emabrked on a series of cutbaks due to lack of subsidy from the Strathclyde Passenger Transport. In my home town of Cumbernauld, half of it's 60,000 residents have had their bus service almost completely withdrawn as it is not subsidised. Meanwhile, SPT intends to invest millions in new electronic timetables at bus stops. I don't see the point in investing such money in these high-tech bus stops which will undoubtedly be destroyed by vandals within half an hour of their being erected while thousands of people are left with little or no bus service because their is no subsidy. If the government is serious about getting people out of their cars and onto public transport, and thus reducing carbon emissions, they must ensure that they provide the appropriate authorities with sufficient funding to subsidise vital bus services. The problem with the privitisation of buses is that companies are free to cut bus services at will even if they leave people stranded. Buses are essential in the battle to reduce polution, and the government must encourage their use by providing sufficient subsidies.

Local authoritites across Scotland have recently announced their increases in council tax for the coming year, and it remains blatantly obvious that this is a totally unfair system which must be replaced. As it happens, my own local authority, North Lanarkshire Council, will increase tax by 3.5%. This is clearly unacceptable, and will result in yet more crippling council tax bills landing on doormats. However, it is even more outrageous when you consider that NLC (and undoubtedly others) have failed to adjust the council tax bands in line with increases in property value, elevating many households into higher bands. In a recent publication, NLC published blatant lies regarding house prices in the region, claiming that the vast majority of households are in band A, and thus most houses in North Lanarkshire are worth below £27,000. Now I don't claim to be any expert on the issue, but I know enough about it to realise that you would struggle to acquire a rabbit hutch for £27,000 these days. Band A tax is now £694 p.a. going up to an astonishing £2,802 in band H. As if the sheer amount of it is not enough, many residents of North Lanarkshire would agree that they do not see the benefits of their tax once it has passed into the greedy hands of the fumbling council. And then there is, of course, the fact that the method of derermining the amount paid in tax is completely unfair. The value of a persons house does not necessarily refletct their income. Local authorities should set tax levels on ability to pay, and not property value.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

All ballot papers for the leadership election must be posted to the returning officer by 1st. March

If you are still undecided on who should lead our party, check out the campaign material of the 3 candidates:

Simon Hughes http://www.simonhughesforleader.com/
Sir Menzies Campbell http://www.campbellcampaign.org/
Chris Huhne http://www.chris2win.org/

This election is of vital importance for the future of our party - make sure you have your say on who will be the Liberal Democract prime minister in 5 years!

In the first real test of our party since the recent controversies, the Liberal Democrats have achieved an astonishing result in the Dunfermline & West Fife by-election. Labour were defending a majority of 11,000 but Willie Rennie managed to overturn this to bring the number of Liberal Democrat MPs at Westminster to 63.

Willie Rennie (Liberal Democrats) 12,391
Catherine Stihler (Labour) 10,591
Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party) 7,261
Carrie Ruxton (Conservative) 2,702
John McAllion (Scottish Socialist Party) 537
James Hargreaves (Scottish Christian Party) 411
Thomas Minogue (Abolish Forth Bridge Tolls Party) 374
Ian Borland (UK Independence Party) 208
Dick Rogers (The Common Good) 103

This outstanding victory is proof that, despite recent controversy, the British public recognise the Liberal Democrats as the only REAL ALTERNATIVE to the increasingly irritating Blair government. We will continue to win more votes, we will continue to take more seats, and we will achieve our aims at all levels of government.

The past few months have brought turbulent times for the Liberal Democrats. We may have lost the confidence of many voters, and now is the time to start putting things right again. First we must concentrate on electing a new leader, and, despite Mark Oaten pulling out, we still have strong candidates in Sir Menzies Campbell, Simon Hughes and Chris Huhne. Despite revelations about Simon Hughes earlier this week, I hope that his sexuality will not deter members from considering him as our future leader. There is no doubting that he is a talented politician, and I believe he would prove to be a successful leader. Then there is Sir Menzies Campbell - talented, popular, and a man who holds a natural ability to lead. Chris Huhne, the youngest of the candidates, could very well cause some surprises and take a significantly higher proportion of the vote than is predicted. Whoever we elect as our new leader, I am confident that he will lead the way in rebuilding our party as an effective opposition and attract even higher levels of support in elections - starting with Dunfermline in a few weeks time, where we have a good chance of pulling off a victory. We may have had our problems over the past few months, but the reasons people voted for us in the last election are still there. The new Conservative leader David Cameron will not take the Tories back into power, as they remain the same old Conservative party that are fast losing support. New Labour under Gordon Brown should be nothing to worry about, pushing forward plans for ID cards, and who knows, even a few more illegal wars? So we have to look to the future, look at ways of rebuilding and recovering from these blows, and come the next General Election we will go on gaining more votes, electing more MPs and continuing as the only Real Alternative to the Labour government.