Reflections on the elections in Oxford (and the rest)

Interesting few days...

I've tried to keep working for finals but it's been a bit chaotic frankly so I'm falling behind again. Rather like Big Tony i'm trying to use this weekend to regain the initiative. Haven't really blogged for a few days so here's some thoughts.

1. Really Really Really well done to the Labour Club. Nigh on 30 activists out at 5am to get 5,000 leaflets out to the Labour promise before any of them had woken up was a startling achievement. There are at least 3 councillors here in Oxford who owe their seats to OULC.

2. Really well done to the Oxford Labour Party - a huge swing in terms of seats (probably votes too but I can't be bothered to do the maths) to Labour from 2004, against the background of the last few weeks is a wonderful achievement and a real reward for all the hard work of the past 12 months. There's one ward I know of where 50% of the electorate have been spoken to in the past month. Accross Oxford East 10s of thousands have had a call from their local councillors, from Andrew Smith MP or from local activists and the Labour Club in the past year.

3. Congratulations to Councillor Antonia Bance, representing Rose Hill and Iffley ward, now the second safest Labour seat in Oxford! Enjoy Kefalonia, but the hard work starts when you get back ;-)

4. Congrats to Rae Humberstone, councillor for Blackbird Leys where I spent the day on Thursday. a 60 vote margin over the Independent Working Class Association. I won't expand on the IWCA since I'd rather not get myself in any trouble. Suffice to say that Blackbird Leys will now have the representation it deserves - and not least thanks to the hard work of Rae, Andrew Smith MP who has lived on the estate for decades, his wife Val and all those who slogged around the estate for the past year and for 17 hours on polling day.

5. Nationally an interesting set of results - clearly not great for Labour but on the other hand not as bad as I and others had feared.

A few friends worth a "shout out":

Kirsty Mcneill elected in Southwark - well done Kirsty!
Nick Small increased his majority from 18 to over 300 in Liverpool Central Ward - good work Nick. (great results overall in those councils too, woohoo)

Bad luck to Rhodri and Ellie and Pete who I know all worked hard in Southwark, Lewisham and Haringey respectively. And To all the ex-Oxford posse in Haringey - well done, looking forward to a better Haringey ;-)