UK local elections redraw London colours

Losing over 100 seats in yesterday's local elections would have been survivable; 200, disastrous. So with 250 Labour seats lost, Blair had no option but to reshuffle. London, particularly, has turned blue and yellow where before much was red. Terrific.

Out goes well-meaning but incompetent Charles Clarke; the Westminster village idiot John Prescott finally gets cut down to size; Margaret Beckett wins big with the Foreign Secretary role - great for the Conservatives since the voters hate her supercilious manner. Overall, a good day for Britain's Conservatives - with quite a result.