Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images The counting has begun in the English local and Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections, and with a long weekend ahead, I approach today’s analysis with a degree of trepidation. What we know so far – with only a few dozen English councils having declared, and most of them electing only a third of their seats – is that Reform UK is performing strongly across the North and Midlands of England. The most striking results I’ve seen so far are in Hartlepool in the North East, Newcastle-under-Lyme in the West Midlands, and North East Lincolnshire in the East Midlands. In each case, the pattern was the same: Reform swept the board, taking virtually every seat up for election from Labour and the Conservatives in almost equal measure (in Lincolnshire, a single Lib Dem prospered while Reform won 14 of the 15 seats available).…