Whilst I was away in America, of course, we had a big set of elections that took place last Thursday.
Why it takes until Saturday night to count them all, I have absolutely no idea.
What is the upshot of it all? Well, the Conservatives did pretty much as badly as expected, down by nearly 500 council seats, which was pretty much what was expected.
They lost nearly 50 per cent of the seats that they held prior to the election. Why? Well, in the seats where Reform stood, a significant number of going to Reform, and we certainly saw that in the Blackpool South by election, with Reform coming in just 117 votes behind the Conservatives, albeit with Labour way out in front.
Nigel Farage shares his thoughts on the UK's mayoral elections
GB News
There are also conservatives going back to Labour. These are the old red wall voters, Brexiteer red wall voters going back to the Labour Party, but also a lot of conservatives simply staying at home. They're pretty disgusted with the last 14 years.
For Labour, on the face of it, well, they won nearly all of the mayoral races bar one. Ben Houchen managed to hang on up in Teesside, albeit with a vote share that was down by 20 per cent.
And they'll certainly be pleased to have won the West Midlands from the Conservatives's Andy Street. So a good night for Labour, but not exactly overwhelming. Didn't exactly feel like Tony Blair in 1997.
As for Reform, well, they only stood in 15 per cent of seats. I think what they did prove is they don't have much of a machine on the ground, but that the polls are right because it cost across the 300 seats in which they stood, they averaged 12 per cent with, as I say, nearly 17 per cent in Blackpool South.
So there is a Reform vote there, of that there's no doubt. But to me, the really big feature, well, I've been talking about it for months on this show, the growth of sectarian politics.
I said to all of you that George Galloway's win in that Rochdale by-election was not a one off.
Well, anyone that supports Zionism, they are coming to get. I hope that just means in electoral terms, although I'm not, given the tone of that gentleman's manner, entirely sure.
This is what you see everywhere. There were about 40 council seats won by people standing on a Gaza agenda. Some stood for the Green Party, some stood for Galloway, some stood as independents. And this all took place in areas that are Muslim majority wards. If that's not a sectarian vote, I don't know what is.
This is our country in 2024. This is the diversity agenda. Is this what you intended? Peter Mandelson?
You said you wanted to open up, you wanted to change the country. Well, you did it with mass immigration. But don't think the Tories get off on this one, do you know, in 2023. 250,000 people settled in this country from the Indian subcontinent. And what you can see is that if people come in very, very large numbers, they bring their culture with them.
And what we're witnessing with this growth of sectarian politics is an attempt to take over councils, is an attempt to win seats in the British Parliament. And over the last couple of days, the organisation called Muslim Vote that we've that we've highlighted here on this show before have put out 18 demands to Keir Starmer.
Things such as he must ensure that sharia compliant pensions are available at every workplace. It's a list of 18 demands. And you know what? If Keir Starmer met those 18 demands, they'd come back with 18 more.
So my question tonight, is sectarian politics here to stay? I believe that it is. I believe that at the time of the 2029 general election, given the population explosion that is going on within those communities, it will be a significant factor. Ultimately, it will hurt Labour far more than it will hurt the Conservative Party.