Another disappointment for Ed Miliband

The final tally from Wales is just in — and it’s a minor disappointment, on a day of many disappointments, for Ed Miliband. There was a time when Labour looked set for a comfortable overall majority in the country. But it isn’t to be. They did gain four seats, yet that leaves them one short of an overall majority. Now, with thirty seats — exactly half of those in the Welsh Assembly — they will have to make do with a tighter, working majority. Far from terrible, but not the red groundswell that Miliband might have hoped for.

The problem for Miliband is the overall picture: a precarious sort of victory in Wales; solid, but unspectacular, results in England; an evisceration in Scotland; and, most likely, defeat for AV. To top of it off, the Tories performed fairly well in Wales, gaining two seats, and overtaking Plaid as the second party.