Peter Black loses his Mojo live on TV.

One of the differences between the approach of political Parties to Local Government Elections and General Elections or the Welsh Assembly Elections, is how they manage expectation.

In the General Election, and to some extent those for the devolved Governments, all the Parties (despite the evidence of the polls) claim they are going to make gains . They make a show of optimism and look like they generally  believe in the hype.

When it comes to Local Government Elections the reverse is often the case .Parties that are in doing well in the polls and expect to main gains play down their expectations. Whilst those doing badly claim that they are "expecting some ".

After the election they try to cherry pick the results from different council .Looking for some success on a bad night. In  particular hoping that they may have (usually due to local factors) made some unexpected gains, or hold on to a council against the general trend.

The Tories did this whilst in government in the 1980's .Pointing to councils where they had reduced local taxes and despite big losses throughout the UK, managed to look like winners.

This may behind Plaid's Helen Mary Jones claim that said the Council election in Wales would be tough and that Plaid was "aiming to hold its ground".

This despite the clear boost in confidence the election of Leanne Wood as Party Leader as given them.

It will be interesting if any Party makes bold claims of  making a big increase in councillors gaining control of councils and after the Bradford West By-election  even Labour may be wary .Hoping that they will not be seen as a weak opposition  and there will not be swing to parties who are not one of the establishment..

There was an attempt by Peter Black yesterday he on the Politics Show to sound positive .He admitted things looked bad  but tried to put on a brave face.

 Unfortunately for Peter his facial and body language was not so optimistic . Those of you  familiar with the  sheer Bluster and Chutzpah of his Blog would have been shocked with his appearance. He looked like a man approaching the gallows who whilst still protesting his innocence  was resigned to his inevitable fate.

If Peter appearance is matched by his fellow LibDems on the streets of Wales then are going to look like losers everywhere and will it very difficult to inspire even those members of the public who have a residue of support for them.