First Salvo

The last couple of weeks have brought surprises. The first is an awful lot of thank yous - not to me mind, to the electorate. Councillors are now wanting to do work between elections and the first salvo is a thank you letter. The second thing is that councillors want content for newsletters as they want to take credit for new schemes and successes in their wards before the opposition do. I feel pleased that I may have been listened to but I hope that the frantic printing is accompanied by frantic delivery.

Revolution?

The post election meeting was a bit different than my forecast. The councillors who were returned who fought hard were clearly sending out the message that we can't rely on people to turn out in droves and they were positive about starting up a low level campaign straight away.

The councillors who hadn't campaigned and had seen their votes drop are now suddenly aware that things can't continue as they are. People were positive about my campaign and I was thanked for flying the flag.

A good meeting. I was very surprised.

Autopsy

The constituency party will meet soon to carry out the annual autopsy that follow the elections. The candidates who were returned without challenge will see the fact that the kept no canvass records during the election as a virtue. They will say that they don't need to canvass as everyone has a good general feeling Labour and they don't like to ask how they vote. The trend for these no-knocker branches is a decline in ward turnout and a decline in Labour vote but no decline in the oppositions vote. I often wonder if it would take the loss of a candidate to make them realise they have to work.

A couple of wards have already smelled the coffee and are keeping records and working their collective arses off identifying voters and pulling them out on the day. In theses ward the turnout is up and Labour vote is going up and their opponents are static or are seeing their vote fall. A good trend.

The ward I contested will be moaned about as virtually none of the branch members came out. My campaign was fought with outside help. I have some work to do but I have kept the confidence of the constituency chair and the MP, so I should have a good chance of having support to rebuild the branch and get going for next year. I just need to go on a charm offensive.

Taking Stock

After some number crunching over the weekend I have realised that all I need to do over the next twelve months is change the minds of 400 or so voters and the seat I fought could be won for Labour. Ideas for campaign literature are forming. All I need now is some workers to deliver it or a fund raising team to pay for mailings.

The Count

We held the line in our neck of the woods with no significant losses and no significant change. Some votes quite close to the wire which may wake up some of our lot to the necessity of working harder.

I didn't overturn the incumbent but came out with a respectable percentage given the short nature of the campaign. It has whet my appetite for more and hasn't put me off having another go. But this time I'll have 52 weeks to have a go rather than the 6 weeks or so I had this year. Time to pilot my ideas for change and hope they work.

Not a bad year for Labour, not a breakthrough years for the Tories (especially in the North), and a woeful year for the Lib Dems.