May Day should have been a day of celebration for Gordon Brown’s Labour Party, as a reminder of its trade union roots and past connection with the blue collar industrial heartland of Britain. This year’s local elections pretty much spoiled Labour’s party. And things are not looking to get better anytime soon.

The May 1 local elections saw the worst defeat for Labour in 40 years. To add insult to the injury, yesterday’s elections for London’s top post ended the era of Ken Livingstone, who lost by a somewhat narrow margin to Boris Johnson, the Conservative posh boy.

That was a hell of a cold shower for Gordon Brown, if he ever needed one [which is unlikely, given his country of residence]. Labour voters pretty much stayed at home or worse, voted for the opponents. Tories in London mobilized in record number and cast their votes in favor of Boris Johnson.

Of course, as in all local elections, some of the reasons behind this across the board defeat are, well, local. Yet the underlying causes for Labour’s debacle have nothing to do with local issues. Take London, for instance. Livingstone was no doubt a controversial, eccentric figure, outspoken in his wacky foreign policy choices. Yet London thrived during his time, and his overhaul of the public transit system could only be matched by the achievement of securing the Olympic bid. Even Johnson, in his victory speech, gave praise to Livingstone and even expressed his hope that the latter may somehow become involved in the London administration in the future.

Who is to blame for Labour’s disaster, then? The obvious answer is the gloomy economic situation, and of course, as the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Brown is seen by most Brits as primarily responsible for the troubles in Britain’s economy. Leaving aside the global economic downturn, Brown’s recent record in the area is extraordinary, as he was able to get almost everything wrong, and not only on the economic side: tax reform, Northern Rock, detention of terrorists, political funding, to name just a few.

I will add to this my personal and of course unfair observation that Brown lacks Blair’s charisma, and has the look and feel of a manager rather than of a true political leader. Which only adds to his predicament - having failed as a manager, he lacks the political skills to get himself out of the mess.

If Brown is Labour’s problem, then replacing him might be the obvious solution. But here things are getting even more complicated, because there is no obvious alternative. For the time being, Labour are stuck with an unpopular, uncharismatic leader who has little to show for his time in office and is slowly losing his grip over his own Party.

I think Labour’s glorious decade is coming to an end. If Blair was Labour’s thatcher, it may well be that Brown is their Major. The Tories now have an opportunity that only comes once in a political career. I think that we may well be seeing the end of ‘New Labour.

[For more background, see the BBC and Guardian coverage. For a broader picture, check Economist's analysis.]