I agree we're thick !

"I agree with Nick". For a few days this seemed to be the rally cry which would carry the Lib Dems into government. As it is, it seems to be carrying us into a shoddy deal to prop up a failed Tory Leader who blew a 44% lead in the polls against a Prime Minister described as "the worst ever" on election day by a member of his own party.

All of our canvassing in Mill Hill indicated that the Lib Dems would get in at the Council in Mill Hill. We thought we'd left nothing to chance and were canvassing all hours for weeks on end. I now realise that there's a huge swathe of Tory and Labour voters who only come out to play at general elections. These people will only vote for their own party. They don't read the other sides leaflets. They will be polite on the doorstep and listen to your arguments, but they ain't going to change where they put their cross on the ballot paper.

So could the Lib Dems have won in Mill Hill on a day when the Council Elections coincided with a general Election? This is a question I have been asking myself. The honest answer is "Yes, but only with hindsight or a Tardis". You can't fight the same campaign that you fight for purely locals. Former Lib Dem Councillors all over London have learned this harsh lesson. Sadly for Barnet, I think the election has delivered an awful result. One of the reasons I joined the Lib Dems last year was because I was impressed with how the Lib Dem Councillors had provided effective opposition on a whole range of issues (Iceland, Sheltered Housing, Future Shape). As Wayne Casey was standing down, he personally asked me to consider taking up the mantle because he knew I'd put the hours in and do my homework. It was not meant to be.

Sadly for the people of Barnet, I think that less effective scrutiny as they launch into Future Shape will be a disaster. I am at a complete loss as to how to head this off. I am sure that Jack, Monroe and Suzette will do a fine job as best they can, but with half the number of councillors it will be a daunting task.

Every conversation I had on the doorstep, every chat in the street or in the pub, made me think we we had got it right. The behaviour of certain people on the night of the election, convinced me of the need to get decency back into Barnet politics. Unless you were actually there, it would be impossible to convey how awful some of the people in Barnet politics really are. There are some very decent people on all sides, many of them backbench councillors who just do it for the good of the people they represent. I must say that I think the Mill Hill Conservative Councillors are decent men so I'm not having a go at them. I am sure you can guess who I am referring to. One such man sneered at me after the result was announced "What an idiot, he actually thought he was going to win".

Well my friend, to coin a phrase "I agree we're thick". Let me remind him of another one of my mantras "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger". Last time I looked in the mirror I most certainly wasn't dead. Let me remind him that Tory Mill Hill Councillor John Hart lost in 1994, 1998 and 2002 (and at a couple of byelections). Did he give up and hide under a stone? John and I have one thing in common. We are Mill Hill through and through (even if boundary changes mean he now lives in Hale!). I suggest if any Tories in Barnet think I might get fed up with all of this and give up, they ask John Hart how likely this would be. He understands. We may sit on opposite sides of the politcal fence, but we are both stubborn sods.