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.

To the barricades

Fellow Barnet blogger Don't Call Me Dave has ended his self-imposed purdah in order to comment on the coming elections. Read his excoriation of the Barnet Tory hopefuls for Parliament and council here. He signs off:

We don’t need an election. We need a revolution.

Amen to that, but if there was one we'd proably be on opposite sides of the barricades.

I shall vote Labour, but I am resisting the temptation to make Andrew Dismore my friend on Facebook. When he sees who I am consorting with in cyberspace, he could have me witch-hunted out of the party. Politics is a funny old business, isn't it, when your worst enemies are on your own side?