Sorry, dear readers! I have been neglecting you, I know. I have not blogged for ages, although at times it has been very tempting. But all my energy has been invested in fighting the good fight for the Conservatives in London, culminating in the elections last week. Most of the other bloggers have got in well before me with their comments on the outcome of the elections--and what a bizarre take some of them have on the results!
I had to laugh at Matt Davies' efforts. This guy would have been snapped up as a Baath party press officer by Saddam, if he was still with us. But Iraq's loss is Fortis Green's gain. What fibs! What shameless spinning! According to him, it was a "bad night for the Conservatives across the country". OK, let's look at the facts:
How did the Conservatives do?
* Conservatives win London Mayoralty - the biggest prize of all!
* 300 new councillors - we weren't just piling them up in our heartlands, many were elected in northern town and cities like Bury and Sunderland
* Welsh Conservatives control the same number of councillors as Labour (for the first time in history)
* Two additional members of the London Assembly
* By-election wins across the country, especially in London
* Out-polling Labour and the Lib Dems in Crewe and Nantwich, ahead of the May 22 by-election
How did the Fib Dums do?
* Lib Dems Mayoral candidate sees his vote halve
* Lib Dems only just make a net gain of councillors, despite Labour's record-low results
* Conservatives now have more councillors than the Lib Dems in the north, middle and south of England
* No progress in Wales
* Two members down on the London Assembly, including incumbent Geoff Pope
* Losing council by-elections, e.g. in Bow, Tower Hamlets, a seat held by them for yonks
* Only polling a miserable 19% in Crewe and Nantwich, boding very badly for the May 22 by-election
The usual suspects in the broadcast media have tried to pretend this is solely an anti-Labour phenomenon, and doesn't mean people like the Conservatives any more than they did. But, in that case, why is it that Labour's losses were not more evenly distributed between Conservatives and LibDems? In fact, we Cs were picking up more than 10 of those Labour seats for every one picked up by 'Nick Clegg's Fib Dums'.
And what a damp squib Clegg has turned out to be for the Fibs!? He made absolutely no impression at all during the campaign, did he? If I were Lynne Featherstone, I'd be pleading with Chris Huhne to give it another shot.
Meanwhile, Matt's chum, a pocket-Mandelson Mark Pack,tries to make capital out of the fact that Edward Timpson, the Conservatives' local choice for Crewe and Nantwich, isn't local because... err... he ran the New York marathon and went to university in another place.
All in all, absolutely pathetic and sour stuff from the dustbin party that's heading for the scrapheap!
