A "healthy recovery" for the Conservatives?

I found these comments by Tory MP Peter Luff on his website defending David Cameron. He claimed:

The Labour Party has been all but obliterated in the South of England at local level, and is under severe pressure from the Tories in the rest of the country.

And:

there is still much to be done. We still have no councillors in Liverpool or Newcastle, but the May elections were a good step towards a healthy recovery.

Quite what sort of “healthy recovery” the Conservatives are making in Liverpool and Newcastle is not clear. Just for the record, I thought I would point out the situation:

Number of seats on either council held by the Conservatives: 0
Number of seats winnable for the Conservatives in either council: 0
Activity by Conservatives on the ground in either city: 0
Conservative hopes of making a breakthrough in either city: 0

This is of course repeated elsewhere in many other areas where the Conservatives are extinct, such as my own borough of Gateshead.

So if this marks a “healthy recovery” for the Conservatives, let’s have more of it!