As expected, Labour took it on the chin in local elections in Britain yesterday, scoring its lowest share of the vote since 1982. Tony Blair's party finished at 26%, one point behind the Lib-Dems and fourteen points behind the Tories and David Cameron. The projected result is a net loss of some 175-200 council seats for Labour, which is close to double what party leaders had hoped for, but far from the 400+ seat loss that analysts said would have represented a "total meltdown" for Labour and the absolute end for Blair.

Still, Blair has once again been hurt at the polls, and he responded today with a major reshuffling of his beleaguered cabinet. Embattled Home Secretary Charles Clarke is out, Foreign Office Secretary Jack Straw is being replaced, and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott will stay on with a stripped-down list of responsibilities.

The Guardian, Britain's leading left-wing newspaper, casts the results of the election this way in its lead editorial:

Some inside government will argue that the depth of the crisis is exaggerated: a Labour campaign which trumpeted the party's record on lawlessness and antisocial behaviour was swamped by chaos at the Home Office. But others, perhaps the chancellor, believe the party's weakness draws on far deeper roots. That view is right. John Prescott and possibly Charles Clarke will be the scapegoats, but they are not only the cause of failure.

Tim Hames offers a similar take from the conservative perspective:

It would be staggering if the keystone cops activities of Charles Clarke, the personal life of John Prescott and the apparent hostility of nurses towards Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, had not made a bad situation worse for Labour in the last ten days of the campaign. But the trends that seemed to materialise in a complex series of ballots yesterday were not new nor do they herald a new political era.

Blair brushed aside calls for him to step down after Labour's weak showing in the last election, and he just recently made news by saying he planned on sticking around through 2009. After last night, Blair will probably be lucky to last through 2007 - and some think he may not even make it through the end of 2006.