VanessaI guess we will never know for certain whether you are or are not correct, but as I have said previously the raw data does not bear out your theory. Not only did other independents fair far worse than the ICG (and John Connelly in particular could hardly be described as an unknown), but I also received the highest vote of any ICG candidate in my own ward. This wasn't right and it wasn't fair - on performance over the past four years Paul Fisher should have had that honour - but it doesn't exactly support the theory that voters were reacting against me personally (one of the Labour leaflets claimed that I owned a holiday home abroad, which obviously is something I will need to take some advice about as it amounts to an accusation that I have falsified my tenancy application). I honestly do believe that this level of personal attack has the opposite effect to that intended, which in retrospect could also have accounted for Ann Keen's relatively decent performance at the general election.The simple fact is that I received nearly 1000 votes more than I did when first winning a council seat in Isleworth South. In my view it is mere wishful thinking to look beyond the freak conditions caused by the general election being held on the same day for the reasons behind the result. There may of course have been individual voters who reacted against me personally, but the figures do not suggest that this was a major cause of the outcome.My regrets over the coalition are not down to the fact that we entered into it. As I've previously indicated I think we owed it to our voters to seize our opportunity to try to make a difference. Rather my failing was that I didn't do more to try to persuade my Group to reconsider our position when it had become clear to us that officers were being allowed (encouraged?) to obstruct our own efforts. On the one occasion when there was a clear conflict between our position and that of our partners (Mogden) Hounslow Matters magazine was quite blatantly mobilised to undermine us and it is at that point that we should have walked, or at least threatened to do so unless the matter was quickly resolved to our satisfaction. The irony is that had I still been on the Executive myself I would have felt more comfortable about suggesting such a course of action, but as I had handed over my role to somebody else I feared it would be unfair to my colleagues to have done so. Instead I simply asked the Chief Executive to investigate, which he didn't (and probably couldn't if the instruction had come from him in the first place) and I quietly resolved to get the election out of the way - which I didn't believe the Conservatives could win outright and didn't think for a second that Labour would - and then to present substantially more robust terms for any new coalition agreement.The reason I am relatively cool at this point about the outcome of the local election is that, towards the end of the last council, there were signs that Labour itself was beginning to buy the Community Engagement idea. The Labour Group supported my second motion to Borough Council on the subject. This may have been tactical, and I still realise of course that Labour has a default instinct for control rather than co-operation, but bearing in mind our own failure to get this past the Conservatives in any meaningful way beyond ward level (where I think we scored some very considerable successes) I see no reason for not giving the new administration a chance.If it fails, there are other ways on pursuing the agenda. David Giles' ungracious and sneering remarks a few days after the election about how his party now intends to try to shaft us in Isleworth and Syon (a mere dream but a telling indication of his party's thinking) makes it clear to me that the option previously pursued is now firmly closed, but other doors open.Thanks to the new government we already know that the next time a local election will coincide with a general election is likely to be in May 2030. It will be a brave person who tries to speculate as to what the local political map will look like by then, but I can assure you that I won't be involved.
Phil Andrews ● 5832d