Where does Labour go from here?

What are the reasons behind what have been declared as Labour’s worst council results in 40 years? Can these results be attributed to the 10p tax debacle of the last two weeks, a reaction to what Gordon Brown has labelled the “difficult economic circumstances” that the UK is experiencing or is it as former Labour Cabinet Minister Tony Benn claimed "verdict on Blairism"?
Or is this simply a protest vote against Labour which does not have a real bearing on the voting patterns for the next general election?
What should Labour do in order to rectify the situation or has the tide in the UK already changed in favour of the Conservatives?

BBC report on the elections – We have collected some extracts from the BBC coverage on the elections, but we are looking for you to comment either directly on this post or write your own piece on what you think about all these questions that Thursday night’s local election results have created.

BBC research suggests Labour won 24% of votes cast in England and Wales, behind the Tories on 44% and Lib Dems on 25%.
In total Labour lost 331 councillors and key councils like Reading. Tory gains include Bury and North Tyneside.

Mr Brown insists his party will learn lessons. David Cameron called it a "big moment" for the Conservative Party.
The margin is similar to the drubbing received by Tory Prime Minister John Major in council elections in 1995, two years before he was ejected from Downing Street by Tony Blair.

Mr Brown told reporters: "It's clear to me that this has been a disappointing night, indeed a bad night for Labour."
He conceded that the government had "lessons to learn", but insisted: "My job is to listen and to lead."
He blamed "difficult economic circumstances" for much of the bad performance, and claimed that measures taken by the government to counter problems would become clear "over the next few months".

Of course local elections are not the same as general elections. People do feel a greater liberty to register a protest vote and some parts of the country have not gone to the polls this time.

Yet more than 100 Labour MPs will now be worrying about their chances of keeping their seats at the next election.
There is no sign of any organised attempt to move against the leader who was given such overwhelming support by his party when Tony Blair stood down. There is no obvious candidate prepared to put up a serious challenge at the moment.
With two years to go before the next election, Gordon Brown does have time to turn around his party's fortunes. But some are now wondering whether he is personally capable of the sort of change that is needed.

Tony Benn comment:
Former Labour cabinet minister Tony Benn says the results are a "verdict on Blairism". "For ten years we've been told 'leave everything to the market. Borrow on the value of your house. You'll be all right. Don't worry, privatisation will solve the problem.' And I think the credit crunch has been a sort of economic 9-11. It's changed everything. And a lot of people are really frightened now ... I think that's really what we ought to understand, because when people are frightened they always move to the right."

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