[2.00am] I've lived in Birmingham for 18 and a half years. Today is the first day that I will not have lived here under a Labour administration. Labour have lost 11 seats tonight, and lost overall control of the city council by two seats. They remain the largest party, but it remains to be seen if they can govern. My good friend, former housemate, and former owner of my house, Steve, who was defending a Labour majority of 45 votes in Longbridge, and for whom I've been leafletting (despite me not being a Labour supporter), has performed a major miracle. I assumed he had been one of those eleven losses, but not only has he held on, against the prospective Tory parliamentary candidate, but he has increased his majority from 45 last year to 535. I am so pleased for him. He was Birmingham's first out gay councillor in 1998, and is still the only one.

I asked Steve last week whether my own ward was causing concern within Birmingham Labour Party. He hadn't heard that it was. I 'warned' him (not that it bothers me) that our rock-solid Labour area was a sea of orange posters. I live in Roy Hattersley's former parliamentary constituency. There are few more heavily Labour constituencies in the country. But our corner shop had gone Lib Dem. Every poster in anyone's house was Lib Dem, and I told Steve it looked like a sea change was about to take place, especially after I saw a boy walking home from mosque school last week with a Lib Dem poster. Sure enough, the unthinkable has happened, and I now live in a Lib Dem ward, for the first time in my life. Hurrah! I voted Green as usual - one of a mere 338 (5.72%) here - but I'm more than happy with a Lib Dem win. They won 51.84% in my own ward, Sparkbrook, and a staggering 63.99% in neighbouring Sparkhill. Bear in mind that Sparkhill is one of the poorest wards in the country, and it proves the Lib Dems can win anywhere. They took seven Birmingham seats from Labour tonight, and another one from the PJP (a single issue - Kashmir - party). This is revolution! It's also a kick up the arse for a complacent Labour council. Twenty years of Labour control comes to an end, but - and this is the best bit - with absolutely no sign of any revival from the Tories, from whom Labour took Birmingham in 1983. It would be easy to blame the invasion of Iraq and the Muslim vote here, but I should also point out that only my Green and Lib Dem candidates actually live within the ward. That must count for something.
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