91Èȱ¬

I don't know what colour the 91Èȱ¬ graphics department is intending to use to denote 'No Overall Control' but whatever it is, I hope that by the early hours of Friday morning they have enough of it to go around.

Around half of Welsh councils will start counting overnight so if you live in Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Cardiff, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouth, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Swansea, Torfaen, the Vale of Glamorgan or Anglesey prepare for some early news.The rest get to it on Friday morning which is good for bleary-eyed officials, bad for pithy headlines.

Ask around and those Labour AMs who are here in Cardiff Bay and not still out campaigning will tell you they genuinely don't know what you're going to do to their party tomorrow. Neither do I.

Their vote collapsed in 2004. Who can forget those shots of Cardiff leader Russell Goodway in the count, his face falling as the Liberal Democrat stacks were mounting up? But ask what will happen tomorrow and you get a genuine uneasy admission that Labour themselves just don't know.

"10p 10p, if you gave me 10p for every time I've heard about the 10p tax rate on the doorstep .." ... I get the impression one or two canvassing Labour AMs could afford to give up their allowances. (Funny that. There may be something to say about allowances next week, the kind of something that's designed to regain people's faith in politics but let's stick to this week for now).

What about the other parties? The Liberal Democrats admit it'll be a tough few days. They don't, after all, need to do badly on Thursday to find that come Friday, deals are struck that leave them out in the cold. Just how badly would Labour need to win Swansea back to start considering sharing power with Plaid for instance? Four years ago, no way. Now? An awful lot has changed in four years after all.

The Conservatives are upbeat. What was described just a few weeks ago with touching honesty as 'a lack of hatred' on Welsh doorsteps is now, we're told by leader Nick Bourne, actual 'warmth'.

Plaid talk of 'interesting' wards and councils but aren't setting their sights too high.

So ready for another few rounds of the coalition jig? Nine councils are already run by coalitions; another nine by one party with an outright majority. It'll be no surprise if there are more of the former than the latter by next week.

Not all Labour faces are glum mind you. I make an honourable exception of Rhondda AM Leighton Andrews AM is openly beaming thanks to . He may not have said anything he hasn't said before but I doubt whether his reasoning - open mind, don't take us for granted Labour, let's get a parliament out of that other lot - will work its magic on RCT doorsteps.

I see that one council is more than keen to get going. I'd say was ahead of the game, wouldn't you?

UPDATE: Cardiff Council have now come back from the future, where polling stations were already closed the count underway ...

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