Firstly, I want to take the opportunity to thank the residents of West Shoebury for giving me one of the greatest experiences of my life over the past eight years. I also want to thank those residents who still after eight years put their faith in me by putting their cross by the side of my name.
The results for the Conservatives in Southend on Thursday night were a catastrophe. There is no hiding from that. It hasn't gone unnoticed by me that the Conservatives did not win one single ward which make up the Rochford & Southend East Constituency. There certainly is work to do before the General Election.
After much analysing of the data, I am comforted by the fact that I wasn't beaten by UKIP because of the national picture but purely on a single local issue, flood defences, in a very microscopic area. This is what local politics should be.
For those who are not political anoraks, let me take a few moments to explain. West Shoebury is made up of voters from four polling districts and those who vote by post. From the last elections in 2012, the share of the vote was up in three of the five areas and remained exactly the same another.
I am pleased that I fought the election on my principles. I feel that those who are prepared to compromise them for electoral advantage will ultimately be found out in the end. Sometimes the right thing isn't the populist thing.
That said, it was a hard fought campaign and no matter how bitter it was at times my congratulations goes to James Moyies on his victory.
2 comments:
Tony the lesson to be learnt about this election is that councillors need to represent their electorate and not the officers who control southend.
Bernard, good to hear from you. Hope you are well. By the way, how is Anne getting on in try to cut a deal with the Conservative Group?
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