Grateful Thanks for Your Support

Firstly, thank you for voting me as your councillor for a second term. I’m chuffed to bits to have got so much support; it’s a huge priviledge.

Overall it was an ‘ok’ night in Trafford for Labour without making a massive breakthrough in seats. We just gained the extra seat in Urmston.

Labour’s Broadheath campaign in Altrincham is the one that made everyone sit up and take notice. There we campaigned in a much more community based fashion. It was certainly the most enjoyable campaign and we closed the gap right down to 120 votes.

On the whole though Trafford’s results were very much in line with the national english picture, with the Lib Dem vote collapsing. I’m struggling to see a future for the Lib Dems. Their ability to be all things at once and point in opposing directions at the same time has become a fatal liability.

So it’s easy to see why the Conservatives are pleased both nationally and locally with these results. The saving grace for Labour is that were we to make the same advance in votes next year, the seats would fall like apples in a gale. But we have to make that advance. Is that through more leaflets, more doorstep conversations or is it a question of waiting for the cuts to bite? I don’t want us to be complacent. We need to be the party for economic growth, and I’m not sure that the Islington set of Guardian writers really get it yet.

On a last note, once again the organisation of the count was frankly embarassing for Trafford, just as it was last year. It’s not fair on the staff, candidates or press that 4 hours after Sunderland is declared, we are just about to begin.