The results are now in and the BBC who have provided helpful commentary on what has happened as events unravelled have provided this summary of the outcome.

“The biggest winners were Reform. They gained 677 seats, took control of 10 councils, won the tightly-contested Runcorn and Helsby by-election and clinched two mayoral wins.

The Liberal Democrats boosted their number of seats by 163 and took control of three councils.

Labour lost 186 seats, but they managed to hold on to control in a trio of mayoral contests – in North Tyneside, Doncaster and West of England.

Conservatives also suffered losses. They were down 676 seats and lost all 15 of the councils they previously held. A success for them was Paul Bristow winning the mayoral race in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

The Green Party made some gains, winning 43 seats in total, however it suffered disappointment in the West of England mayoral race.

Independent candidates ended the day with 89 councillors across different pockets of England”.

All sorts of people have weighed in with their reactions to this result, and on my Facebook page, ranging from a Green activist friend who sees the results as disastrous with Farage as being a true bad ‘un, to an awakened wonder friend who despaired at the choices on offer by the more established parties: Conservative and Labour but also by the two newer parties wanting to replace them: LibDems and Greens and finally by the newest kid on the block: Reform UK, who did very well in terms of winning seats, who he also did not like.

So what to make out of it all? Firstly, while my record as a political pundit is poor, I did predict that Reform would do well, without realising how well. I didn’t rate the prospects of the two main parties but I hadn’t reckoned on the Conservatives doing significantly worse than Labour. As for the two other parties, LibDems and Greens, both improved their positions, especially the LibDems with their aspirations to be the main opposition and even taking over from Labour and Conservative in the light of electorate disenchantment.  All of the party leaders have given their own spin on the results, none of which I found particularly convincing.

The way I see it is that the voters are dissatisfied with the two main parties and is why Reform, LibDems and Greens, in that order, have improved on their vote share. As I have indicated in my recent blogs, I am far from convinced by Reform’s worthiness, under the leadership of Nigel Farage, to be the party next in government, which is their hope and expectation. Yet they are touching on unaddressed issues that concern many, which at the crux is not so much Britain being overrun by foreigners but rather that it losing it way under the Conservatives have continued rather than being reversed under Labour. They turn to whoever can bring them back onto the right way, and for many that is more likely under Reform.

As for the Local Elections that have come and gone, they do matter (imho). We await further developments with interest. As they say: we live in interesting times. I continue to pray Britain will find its way (in God) and for righteous government (local and national).