Like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic was how Labour politician and former minister Frank Dobson described Thursday's cabinet reshuffle. But it seems embattled Prime Minister Tony Blair hopes seeing heads roll might help him save his own. Dobson though is bound to be in a sour mood, considering that Labour lost the majority in his district Camden for the first time since 1968. Labour suffered losses in 31 other areas of the capital, but it was the defeat in the West London district of Ealing which was symbolically the most significant result. For decades a change of power in this area has been followed by a change of power in Downing Street.

Although the local council elections across England weren't quite as catastrophic as some Labour politicians had feared, the party suffered its worse defeat to the Conservative Party since 1992. More cynical commentators, however, suspect Labour MPs of talking down their chances prior to the elections to lessen the impact of the actual result. Labour ended in third place, behind the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, with a proportional share of the votes equivalent to 40 percent going to the conservatives, 27 percent to the Liberal Democrats and 26 percent to Labour. The right-wing extremist British National Party also benefited from a loss of faith in Labour, by increasing the number of local seats from 20 to 44.

On Friday, all eyes were on Downing Street as Blair set to work rearranging his cabinet. Unsurprisingly Home Secretary Charles Clarke was sacked in the wake of a scandal  involving over 1,000 foreign criminals -- including murderers and sex offenders -- who were released from prison but not deported as government policy dictates. Clarke will continue to serve Blair on the back benches, and his ministry will be taken over by former defense minister John Reid, who has the reputation of being both competent and assertive.

And as a result of a sex scandal with his secretary, John Prescott lost his "super-ministry" portfolio which deals with housing, local government and urban planning. He will, however, remain deputy prime minister. More surprisingly was Jack Straw's apparent demotion from foreign secretary to leader of the House of Commons. This move however, according to the British daily The Guardian, was at the request of Straw himself. He will be replaced by Margaret Beckett, a faithful Blairite and Britain's first female foreign secretary. She formed part of a Labour government as early as the 1970s, and has been in the cabinet since 1997. The fact that she is a eurosceptic has been balanced out by the appointment of the experienced European politician and former minister of defence, Geoff Hoon as minister for European affairs.

The sackings were celebrated by the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, David Cameron, as a sign of the public's increasing lack of confidence in Blair's government. The 39-year-old has been party leader since December, and has done his best to rejuvenate the old and dusty image of the Conservatives. After the birth of his third child he took three weeks paternity leave and during the election campaign he placed great emphasise on environmental issues.

Indeed, considering he is leader of a center-right party, Cameron tends to sound more center-left, says Patrick Dunleavy, professor of politics at the London School of Economics. Cameron, who before his election was relatively unknown, comes across as "very flexible" and even "sometimes opportunistic." Cameron, though, has thus far proven attractive to British voters, especially as Blair's popularity has dipped. The Conservatives, though, still have to make inroads in northern England. The party won no seats at all in the country's second largest city Manchester and hardly any at all in Liverpool and Newcastle.