Libertarian/Green parties thrive in UK Local elections

The Europe wide disillusion with the mainstream political parties based upon the old social class societal cleavage continued yesterday with a number of gains for both the Green Party and the Libertarian UK Independence Party.

The final results were:

Conservative 1007 Councillors
Liberal Democrat 366 Councillors
Labour 360 Councillors
UKIP 131 Councillors elected yesterday, 144 in total
Green 22 Councillors elected yesterday, 141 in total
Plaid Cymru 6 Councillors elected yesterday (Isle of Anglesey only)
Mabyon Kernow 4 Councillors elected yesterday (Cornish National Party)
Independent/Other 161 Councillors elected yesterday

The Labour traditional urban strongholds such as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Leeds etc. were not contested so one should not read too much into Labour's apparently poor showing - these elections were in the more rural areas of the nation.