the pandemic, labour have slowly been making gains, as we saw in the senedd elections last year, when they did much better than expected. they lost a huge number of seats in the local elections in 2017, but they are quietly confident here, quietly confident of winning back the three councils where they lost a majority across south wales, and really hopeful of making significant gains in north east wales, the historical heartland where they have lost votes to the tories in recent times. the tories in wales, i think, are far less confident than in england, they are now really worried about losing their only overall control in monmouthshire, they could be slipping away from them. what will be interesting is to say whether plaid cymru can capitalise on the lack of tory votes this time around, if it does happen, and take another council, possibly in north or west wales. the first results will be coming within the next hour.