Many good local councillors will have lost their seats - probably through no fault of their own.
They have been victims of circumstances beyond their control, possibly as a backlash against policies and decisions of their national party rather than local issues and concerns.
It is a fact that all politicians put their political lives in the hands of the electorate and it is the decision of that electorate about who wins and who fails.
I've stood in countless elections since I first became involved in politics back in 1987, many as a paper candidate never expecting to win - but standing so that the electorate would have a Labour presence on the ballot paper.
It was in that mind that I stood in the Fairview Ward of Blaby District Council in 1995.
And in that mind, due to national disillusionment of Tory Party policies that I was elected to represent that ward.
But not only me - 15 other labour candidates were elected at the same time.
We expected to win 4
We hoped to win 6
We dared to dream of 8.
But we won 16
We were the largest party and had to run Blaby District Council for 4 years.
I'd like to think we did a good job -
We introduced a smoking ban for the Bowls Club against strong Tory opposition.
We retained the bin collection service when all around us, councils were dashing to privatisation
We introduced an arts policy, and even now I swell with pride when I see on a theatre poster "supported by Blaby District Council.
But come 1999, we were reduced to 8 members, behind the Lib Dems in a Tory led adminstration.
One thing I strong remember the day after that election in 1996, was a Leicestershire-based councillor who was due to be mayor of her authority that year. She lost her seat and was unable to be take up the position.
The local paper quoted her as being "betrayed by the electorate". It was the front page headline. It was on that night's billboards. Indeed, I had a copy of that billboard on my wall as a reminder for many, many years.
Here in Exeter, that is probably how Cllr Philip Brock who for many years has represented the St Davids Ward of Exeter City Council, feels today after losing his seat.
Many residents may feel that they have been cheated out of the seat by Exeter Labour Party who [to quote some from Twitter] had not "not as hard as some (green party/libdems)" in the ward.
So these are my comments to you:
Back in the autumn, Exeter Labour Party took some decisions about which seats to target to gain the 2 seats we needed for overall control.
Based on recent election results, it was decided to work hard in
Alphington, St JamesPinhoe; and Polsloe with the objective of probably winning 3 out of the 4.
To balance this, we would develop a strong manifesto with costed commitments of our vision for the city over the coming year.
Exeter have always published a local city manifesto each year I have been in Exeter [since 2004]
This year, that manifesto was posted on-line for the first time and delivered as the centrepiece of an election address to as many households as possible with an election this year [14 out of 18 Exeter City Council wards].
Exeter Conservative Party also produced a city manifesto and published it on-line
But was one produced by Exeter Lib Dems? NO. They produced no ideas or vision of what they wanted to deliver for the city of Exeter. Probably this decision in part was the reason for Cllr Phil Brock's defeat.
In his "Exeter Elections, May 2012 - Post hoc analysis", local Liberal Democrat commentator Lonely Wonderer said:
"Locally, it is easy to say that there should have been a LibDem manifesto..."
Indeed if there was any local campaign it was spearheaded by the local LibDem leader's vitriolic attack on Cllr Rob Hannaford who defected to Labour 2 years ago in the aftermath of the Coalition deal.
Much time, effort and resources was poured into the St Thomas ward in an attempt to oust Rob - probably to the detriment of the St Davids campaign.
A large LibDem team was seen around the ward all day - I hope a similar sized one was at work in St Davids? Perhaps you might like to ask Cllr Fullam - he is on twitter as @AdrianFullam
A third factor was the strong campaign of Exeter Green Party. They too produced a manifesto.
They put all their effort into St Davids, only seeming to campaign here.
They produced a leaflet, albeit a very good one, only for St Davids.
They targeted their limited resources as best they could into the only ward they thought they could take.
Around the city, I heard complaint that voters had not heard from the Greens in their own particular ward. No leaflet, no idea of their candidate. The Green website had biogs of the candidates, but these arrived on-line rather late in the day in some instances
This turned the St Davids Ward into a 3-way marginal, and I personally thought that Andrew Bell might - just might - be elected.
No-one was more surprised that me when, at the count, he called the ward in our favour.
So was Cllr Phil Brock betryed by the electorate? That is for you all to decide.
But it was the democratic decision of 36% of the vote in St Davids via the First Past The Post system used in local elections that chose the vision for Exeter outlined in Exeter labour's manifesto.
I'll end with a comment on the matter from Matthew Vizzard, Chair of Exeter Constituency Labour Party;
"through perhaps a combination of accident & design, #StDavids has itself, in Sarah Laws, a rather promising & highly able new councillor."
Those Exeter City Council election results in full
