It finally dawned on me that we would be leading the borough, when Phil Andrews (ICG) asked me when counting was under way on the Friday afternoon "How does it feel to be taking back the 6 seats in Isleworth/Syon?"
It's been one of the busiest and strangest two weeks of my life, with little chance to get to the blog. so here's a catch-up:
Friday 7th, we went to bed knowing we had gained control of Hounslow Council,, and lost our Parliamentary seat (Ann Keen) by 2000 votes.
On Tuesday Jagdish Sharma and I were elected (unopposed) by our Labour Group colleagues as Leader and Deputy Leader of Hounslow Labour Group - meaning we will be confirmed as Council Leader/Deputy Leader next Tuesday. At the same time news filtered in from the real world (?) that Gordon was going, and realisation that Cameron/Clegg would be running the country.
On Wednesday morning we handed the Chief Executive the five key pledges on which we were elected and asked him to start work on those until we work up our more detailed programme.
Thursday saw Jagdish and I celebrate with Labour Leadership teams from across London. We had taken control of 18 Councils, up from 9. Two key reasons were having the General Election on the same day so raising interest and turnout, and sheer organisation.
Our new Executive team met on Tuesday where we allocated portfolios and discussed our core priorities. We are all now getting to know the key officers and partners we'll be working most closely over the next four years, and the diary is starting to fill up.
Overall - I am continually bumping into people who say they are so relieved we are back. Council staff in particular have confirmed just how bad it was under the Tory/ICG alliance - the "improvement" programme has in many areas all-but destroyed people's ability to do their job and provide an acceptable service. We have to address that, and ensure that the difficult resource decisions we're going to have to make consider the implications for delivery and outcome. No illusions though that the next months and years are going to be a challenge . . .
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