Sunday 9 May 2010

Where's MY Labour council?!

I've been too electioned out to pay enough attention to what happened in the local elections past the borders of Barnet, but news is slowly filtering through to me that Barnet council is almost unique (slight exaggeration) in not having fallen to Labour on 6 May.

Barnet Tory Don't Call Me Dave sportingly lists all the councils that have changed on his blog:

In neighbouring Enfield, Labour won 9 seats to take control from the Conservatives. In Harrow, Labour added 10 seats to oust the Tories. Labour also won control of nearby Brent, Camden and Ealing.
Frankly, looking at this list, I'm starting to feel cheated! Why, especially given the particularly arrogant attitude of Barnet's Tory administration, did our Labour group only manage to hold its own on Thursday and not sweep all before them?

I did think, when I read it, that Labour group leader Alison Moore's comment to the Times series reporter was strange:

“This is a dismal result for the Barnet Conservatives, and their leader Lynne Hillan, who talked of 'turning Barnet blue' in this election.

“I am delighted that we have kept all our hard working Labour councillors and increased the size of the Labour Group as well.”
In fact, the Labour group went from 20 councillors to 21. So, why did Barnet's Labour group not do better? It's certainly something to ponder - and rue.

2 comments:

Rog T said...

Given how crap Barnet Tories are, you are right to feel cheated. I apologise for being one of the candidates who cheated you.

Mind you, I don't think anyone could say I didn't do my best. Did you send out the viral email ?

I hope to god that that helped in some small way. Oh and before you ask, yes I'm angry and fed up. Mostly with myself for not banging on your door and saying "for gods sake Vicki, come to Mill Hill, knock up the Labour vote and help us sling the Tories out of the council, so we can save the wardens". If we'd have converted the Labour/green vote to Lib Dem in Mill Hill, we'd have got one or twos councillors in. If nothing else that would have wiped the smile off their faces.

Next time, I will ask and will not take no for an answer. Shame on me. I know you hate the Lib Dems but i don't believe you are happy with what happened. Next time the gloves really are off

Anonymous said...

I suppose everyone needs to wait for a by-election, and then really park the tanks on the Tory lawn.