What a fantastic night. David Cameron has proved himself and the party is clearly on the way back. Labour took a hammering and the Lib Dems stalled.
In Kingston we had a tremendous night that just slightly fell short of our dream of taking control of the Council. But we have instead a rejuvenated local Consevative party that has continued the good news from the General Election in 2005. We also have a superb range of new Councillors who will be keen to take on this discredited Lib Dem administration who felt campaigning on lies and slurs, not policy, is the way to do things.Kingston will be a better place for the rise of the Tories!!
I lost in Berrylands - but with so much time on my hands they might just come to regret that!
Read more at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_...
31 comments:
It is sad when someone's time on the council comes to an end at a time not of their choosing, irrespective of party.
It is also sad whe you say "...Lib Dem administration who felt campaigning on lies and slurs, not policy, is the way to do things" They seem to have a lot of policies http://www.kingstonlibdems.org/manifesto.htm whilst the things you claim as lies and slurs seem to have the relevant "official" sources quoted such as council minutes, council departments etc. Claiming that something is a lie does not make one.
I hope that you can soon re-adjust to the changes in your life and are able to use the additional time spending much of it with your family who have probably suffered through your period on the council - if others are anything to judge by.
They had a manifesto but failed to tell anyone about it. Only one half of one leaflet was devoted to it in a deluge of paper that went out.
The fact you used speech marks arounf "official" says it all. There was nothing official about any of the nonsense they wrote.
Thanks for your hopes of a peaceful readjustment and I am sure it will be enjoyable but the 3 year campaign to unseat Davey starts Monday morning.
Of course your 'dream' of winning the Council would have happened if you hadn't been so careless to lose your own seat.
I would be surprised if the Tories chose someone who lost a safe Conservative seat like Berrylands as a Parliamentary candidate.
I can't imagine Mr Davey is particularly worried by your 3 year 'campaign'.
Enjoy your retirement.
Sorry to lose you from the council Kevin, it was a low spot in an otherwise great result. Perhaps we could have taken the council with a little more campaigning, in Beverly Ward we only got one leaflet during the campaign compared to the Lib-Dem's two a week!
I think the Lib Dem strategy to take out the political leaders of Labour and the Conservatives was callous and very typical of them. I am very sorry you lost Kevin after all your hard work and I wish you all the best for the future.
'We also have a superb range of new Councillors'
and who may that be?
LOOSER
Why do some of the comments on here have to be so offensive?
Perhaps it would be good to remind everyone that the primary, indeed only, purpose of entering politics is that of public service.
As someone without affilliations to any political party, but who has voted for all three parties at some stage in both local and national elections, I have no axe to grind, as some of the correspondents here clearly have. But I would like to point out that Kevin Davis's devotion to public service has been both exemplary and selfless, and he did not deserve the petty-minded, highly personal smear campaign against him in the recent election - a campaign which, in my view, seriously discredits the LibDems. Indeed, Kevin's replies on this website to comments which a lesser person would be riled by, have been courteous and focused on issues.
As a Kingston resident, I would like to put on record my thanks to Kevin for all that he has done for our community.
Here Here!!
I also notice that they cannot spell!
As a former Lib Dem Cllr in RBK, I would like to say that Kevin has been a fantastic Councillor, and I am sorry that some of my fellow Liberals have treated you in the way they have.
I know the Leadership of the Lib Dems locally really wanted to get you out; you seemed to them as the one person who could really hurt them. Which was proved by the way you won 6 seats?
I was sad to see that you lost, but hopefully you'll be back on the Council sooner or later. (Sooner I think though).
Kevin, enjoy the free time that you have now, go and do whatever you wanted to do but were forced to go to planning meetings.
I wont leave my name due to the childish manner in which the Lib Dems would act if they knew the author.
Dan Falchikov is possibly the most horrible man involved in Kingston politics and I would bet a tenner he was responsible for the above horrible comments.
Hurah! Mary Reid turns off comments after her incomptence is exposed!
I am with you Kevin. I'll help you unseat Ed Davey, then the rest of them a year later.
I am very sorry, Kevin, that you lost your seat. You were seen as a threat so they wanted you dead (politically speaking). I am sure that you will be back soon - in the meantime, your family will be pleased to have you back!
As a natural to be a Labour voter I did not vote for them in Berrylands as they had no hope at all.
The L/Dem record was so appalling especially on C/Tax increases and road obstructions,that I voted Tory.
Just cannot believe that the outwardly sensible folk of the area could support the L/Dem cause.If they had followed the trend it would have been a Tory Council.
Heigh ho thats Democracy,what was the turnout in Berrylands?
Oh Kevin I am so sad for you. If the Lib Dems really think they've done a good thing for this Borough by targeting you then they're very much mistaken. The previous comment on your public service was spot on.
Personalised campaigns are never nice and I am very very proud as a Conservative that we chose not to go down that route ourselves.
Despite the extreme sadness of losing Berrylands you're right to say the Conservatives had a good night - just look at the number of seats where Lib Dems were saved by just a few votes, not least in Chessington North. I have no doubt that with a Kevin Davis with time on his hands, the Liberals are going to live to regret Thursday night.
As for Davey's vulnerability, you just have to look at the number of votes the two parties got - if this had been the General Election the Conservatives would have won.
If you or the Lib Dems think that you can take any credit for the way the election was conducted then a break from the corridors of power in Kingston will give you a reality check and find out what the majority of non-voters thought about your campaigns.
Your claims about the extra staff in Kingston were clearly nonsense - any fool could see there were not 500 extra bodies wandering around the Guildhall. Similarly exagerated claims about waste simply blunted the few examples you could have usefully used. In some ways it is a shame you won't have to implement your proposals to cut staff without hitting frontline services, reduce the council tax whilst improving recycling services and scrapping care charges for the elderly. Whilst the last two points i would very much welcome at least I would admit that there is a cost to them!
Finally how about debating some issues on your blog that show you are capable of independent thought rather than just using it to score political points rather like the Daily Mail. Good Luck anyway.
Thanks Derrick.
The sadness about the staff numbers is that it is true - I too do not know where they are but we are employing them. I am happy to send you the list of every job the Council has if you wish and you can see for yourself. I offered this to the Lib Dems but for some reason they chose not to look at them!
The figures come from the Council HR resources department and are based on counting the number of posts at any single given time. The Lib Dem claim that was made that they included part time jobs which we had not counted the year before is not true because they are all there for both years.
The Lib Dem figures were based on the average number of jobs in post over the course of the year. This is not really a sensible way of counting because if, as they did, they overspend during the course of the year they stop recruiting "non essential" jobs and this depresses the average employed figure. However, as you know, unlike a business the post remains in the budget to be filled the next year or when the overspend is under control. The claims that it is teaching assistants and social workers is also nonsense because we checked.
The cost of removing means testing and restoring domiciliary care to the old system was £250k. The cost of financing the interest payments on the borrowings for the loans to the Kingston Theatre Trust are £250k.
The biggest increase in the budget (except schools spending) was for landfill tax, some £800k in total. The cost of weekly door step recycling was between £300k - £500k depending on how you did it. I accept that there would be a time lag in benefitting from the landfill tax reduction but we would have need to examine what that might be.
But hey - the Lib Dems never let the truth get in the way of a good story!! And by the way be careful of what you read about claims that their figures were agree by the Council - that claim has been referred to the Council Legal officer by the Returning officer.
'As for Davey's vulnerability, you just have to look at the number of votes the two parties got - if this had been the General Election the Conservatives would have won.'
Not true - under the Kingston and Surbiton Parliamentary boundaries the Lib Dem majority was 4,500.
Suggest you look here for the results based on taking the leading candidate for each party in each ward.
http://www.ksca.org.uk/
I am sure there are other ways of calculating it but this seemed the fairest.
Funny when I clicked Kevin's link to KSCA it told me the page could not be displayed.
Perhaps he's worked out that the Tories winning Kingston and Surbiton last Thursday is yet another of his porkies.
Like the title 'Cllr' on this banner.
Sorry to read some of the poor pathetic comments on here Kevin.
Will catch up weith you soon, 3 years is a short time in politics.
Regards,
Never worry Kev. It appears the Lib Dems are going to have a double leadership crisis.
The Campbell is useless so I am sure Ed will stab him in the back like he did the other one. Osbourne ought to be for the bullet for running such a useless campaign, losing Canbury and nearly losing the Reids. Still the Reids are obviously on the way out as my former party members have chosen Mary as Mayor.
Maybe Ian should be leader as Kingston Lib Dems are a Chessington party now!
'As for Davey's vulnerability, you just have to look at the number of votes the two parties got - if this had been the General Election the Conservatives would have won.'
You poor delusional Tories - under KSCA parliamentary boundaries the resulot was 46% Lib Dems, 40% Tory, 10% Labour.
Clearly the Tory vote strengthend in North Kingston, but this is in Susan Kramer's seat isnt it. (In your eyes this probably means that the Tories will loose in Richmond Park in 2009/10. How did Tony Arbour get on last Thursday by the way? lol!)
But please keep thinking that you 'won'! The lengths some people will go to in order to rationalise thier uselessness are breathtaking!
Looks like by-eleciton mania in K and S over the next four years. Will Kevin be brave enough to throw his hat in the ring, or hang on for four years and try and win back Berrylands?
Methinks he will try to get back in the saddle as ASAP, before he is forgotten about....
Following an earlier comment I enquired about staff numbers at RBK and asked for an explanation. I was given the following reply: the figures used were those given to the ONS Quarterly Public Sector Employees Survey returns: 2001 3,460. 2002 3,660. 2003. 3778. 2004.3899. 2005.4450. *note the increase from 2004 to 2005 is explained by a change in the way ONS calculates the figures.That was it.
In the reply to my enquiry (via the Chief Execs office) I was given no explanation of what the figures stand for i.e whether they are FTEs or just a head count regardless of hours and more worringly no explanation of the change in the way ONS made the calculations in 2004.
So, even though I know that it is nonsense that Kingston Council took on an extra 550 staff in one year if the Council cannot even be bothered to explain the statistics it issues then I suppose people will just use the raw formats for their own purposes! I am surprised that the Councils Chief Execs office issues statistics in the most unhelpful way possible to the Liberal Democrats and gives succour to those seeking RBK to shed loads of staff by being too lazy to provide any proper explanation of the statistics. Do my former colleagues think this does them any favours?
So what are your intentions Kevin - to stand for Parliament again or to win back Berrylands - or both?
Sounds like Derrick Chester has become a Tory now!
No idea yet! Still thinking it through.
Very sorry to hear that the Lib Dems concentrated on personality rather than policy again. It's the problem created by Blair in this country...there is no longer focus on issues but certainly alot of ego at play.
You'll certainly be back kevin, but sadly berrylands will only realise once they suffer from it.
don't be so sure!
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