Oh no wait, wrong country and wrong election. There is only one local election contest and not the bi-weekly slogging in the US Presidential primaries. Labour must lick its wounds this morning as projections show Gordon Brown’s party in 3rd place behind the Lib Dems (Liberal Democratic Party in their worst showing in 40 years. Comparisons were made last night to John Major’s disastrous 1995 showing before surrendering Downing Street to Labour in ’97. Having been rightly bitch slapped by David Cameron and the Tories (Conservative Party) who gained 140 local seats, this was about as big a disaster as one could expect as the fallout from the last 9 months (as reported here yesterday) roosted on Mr. Brown’s desk. The remaining sliver of hope is the hotly contested London Mayoral race where an extraordinarily high turnout could save Labour incumbent Ken Livingston from the eclectic and unpredictable Boris Johnson. Ken Livingston is known for some pretty outlandish moves, demanding the US Embassy and other foreign nationals pay congestion charges and is under fire for expanding the congestion charge zones, raising costs for larger vehicles and imposing costly green penalty charges on large lorries entering the city. You either love or hate Mayor Ken. What’s surprising is the growth of the Lib Dems. The party was torn by leadership strife the last few years losing leaders Charles Kennedy then Menzies Campbell in back-room stabbings that made Sir Alan Sugar’s “The Apprentice” boardroom look civil. If this is a sign for 2010, they seem to be over their period of internal strife under new leader Nick Clegg and moving from the fringes into a genuine power broker situation as neither party at 44%, 25% and 24% would have a clear majority and would need a coalition partner to rule.  Extrapolating these results is a bit like looking through the opposite side mirror of a car, “objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” With apologies to Her Majesty and Prince Charles, they could become the kingmakers in 2010.