GillCongratulations on a fine set of results, but I will depart from my usual practice and say one thing in defence of Gordon Brown and his media spokespeople. The word they are all using today is "listen"."It's clear to me that this has been a disappointing night, indeed a bad night for Labour," he told the BBC. He conceded that the government had "lessons to learn", but insisted: "My job is to listen and to lead."Do you remember the response when Colin Ellar was whupped in Hanworth Park for the second time running? "Many of the Tory voters didn't know what they were voting for"!Can you honestly recall any member of the current Labour Group in Hounslow ever at any time conceding even the faintest possibility that they may have been, in even tiniest degree, partly responsible for their electoral humiliation in 2006? I certainly can't. Speak to any of them and you will hear the same thing over and over again - the Tory voters didn't understand, ICG voters were fooled or misled, etc., etc.Ask the former Labour councillor for Isleworth South, who posts regularly on this forum, why she thinks she was rejected by her former voters and (after a torrent of verbal abuse) you will get the same answer. It was the voters wot got it wrong.I was pleased by last night's results because I believe New Labour needs its nose rubbed in the dirt a little bit more before it reconsiders its ways and, one hopes, eventually re-emerges as something altogether more wholesome. Quite how much more humiliation they need locally before someone, somewhere in the party, has the courage to finally grasp the nettle and speak out is of course a matter for conjecture.But speaking personally, if that ever does come to pass my money would not be on Dave Hughes to be that man. I think more hysterical, misspelt, bespittled upper-case abuse is far more likely to be your response from that particular source.If I were you I would be reaching for my umbrella at this particular moment in time.
Phil Andrews ● 6295d