David Orland writes from France on the UK election:

Weakened by a rash of recent ministerial scandals, Tony Blair’s Labour Party was yesterday handed its worst election defeat in over twenty years, losing control of over 300 council seats and 19 town halls. Hoping to restore confidence in his faltering government, Blair today announced a major cabinet reshuffle [ Clarke and Straw lose out in major Cabinet reshuffle By Philippe Naughton ,Times Online May 05, 2006 ]

First to go was Home Secretary Charles Clark. Critics of the government have been calling for Clark’s resignation ever since it was revealed ten days ago that 1023 foreign criminals – all of whom should have first been considered for deportation – had gone missing on Clark’s watch [. Some of the criminals, who include convicted rapists and murderers, have since gone on to commit new crimes.

Clark’s is just the latest head to roll in a long series of British immigration scandals.In the past two years alone, public dissatisfaction with out-of-control immigration has forced the resignation of two prominent ministers, including Clark’s immediate predecessor at the Home Office, David Blunkett.

What does this election mean for the prospects of immigration reform? Probably not much. Neither the Labour government nor their Conservative opponents, now under the leadership of Blair clone David Cameron, are likely to do much to fix the system.

That leaves the British National Party (BNP). With the support of disenchanted white working class voters – the sort of people who voted Labour for generations and are now quitting the Party in droves – the BNP put in an unusually strong showing in Southern England on Thursday.

If the BNP’s gains don’t convince Conservatives to reverse their recent decision to abandon immigration as a campaign issue, a recent poll should. According to an April 26th YouGov poll , 77% of the British public supports fewer asylum seekers while 59% support an end to immigration altogether. When the same positions were identified with the BNP, public support for them markedly dropped. The BNP clearly has a big PR job on its hands. But it also has much room to expand.

If the Conservatives don’t want to worry about this later, they had better act now.