Moving on - towards a general election!

The voters have spoken quite convincingly! Devon was a landslide in favour of the Conservative Party - and locally there was a strong vote for change. Across the country as a whole the Conservative vote share was 15 percentage points higher than Labour - a 9% swing. Of the seven Devon county council seats in the Newton Abbot constituency, as it will be at the next General Election, we now hold five - four substantial gains. John Clatworthy held his seat in Dawlish increasing his majority. John has now been joined by Dennis Smith who lives in Ipplepen (Teignbridge South), Mike Walters who lives in Kingsteignton (Kingsteignton), James McMurray who lives in Teignmouth (Teignmouth Town) and Chris Clarence (Teign Estuary) who lives in Shaldon. John Clatworthy has been appointed Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group in Devon County Council. This gives us a strong voice in Devon. One of their first challenges as a team will be to find savings and reduce the county debt. The aim - no council tax rise next year. Working together we can get things done!

It has been a rollercoaster of a week with very little sleep. But it was all worth it. The two seats out of seven we did not regain were the two Newton Abbot seats - but it was close. After the first count, Newton Abbot North was declared a Conservative win - on the recount it was a loss - but only by 191 votes. We also have an interest in the results for Exminster and Kenton. This seat includes the villages of Starcross and Kenton which are both part of the new Newton Abbot constituency. Here Alan Connett's majority was almost knocked out - he is now hanging on in there by just 33 votes. Now the task moving on is to prove to the electorate that we were worth the vote and deserve to go to Westminster at the next general election - whenever that election is.

Every day Gordon Brown seems to lurch from crisis to crisis. No one has confidence in him - not even his ever changing cabinet. Britain deserves better than this. Instead of thinking about what is best for the country, Labour has spent thinking about what is best for themselves. At a time of economic and political difficulty, we need a strong and united government. Instead we have a Government in complete chaos. But will the Labour back benchers be able to agree on a successor to force a leadership vote? Even if they do succeed will that individual take the country to the poles? Its a bit like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas! The British people should get to decide who runs the country, not Labour MPs!

These were the Devon County Council election results for the constituency:

Teignbridge South:
Dennis Smith (Con) 1,849
Aistair Dewhirst (Lib Dem)
Karen Eberhardt-Shelton (Green) 561
Mary Kennedy (Lab) 152

Dawlish:
John Clatworthy (Con) 2,236
Derek Collins (Lib Dem) 969
Margaret Fountain (UKIP) 901
Richard Fairfax (Green) 273
Graham Hesse (Lab) 236

Kingsteignton:
Mike Walters (Con) 1,269
Andrew Fear (UKIP) 886
John Smith (Lib Dem) 655
Jane Baker (Green) 267
Babs Errington (Lab) 229

Teignmouth Town:
James McMurray (Con) 1,209
Christopher Bray (Lib Dem) 1,120
Chris Whitlock (UKIP) 631
Roy Phillips (Ind) 228
Ros Langdon (Green) 177
Niall Duffy (Lab) 129
Colin Authers 129

Teign Estuary:
Chris Clarence (Con) 1,618
David Cox (Lib Dem) 1,306
Richard Stanton (UKIP) 642
Adrian Prter (Green) 211
Alan Lumb (Lab) 127

Newton Abbot North:
Anne Fry (Lib Dem) 1,323
Lorna Lowes (Con) 1,132
Lucia Capaldi (Green) 408
Robert Kennedy (Lab) 208

Newton Abbot South:
Gordon Hook (Lib Dem) 1,940
Anthony Ballinger (C0n) 1,169
Corinne Lindsey (Green) 441
Barry Kaye (Lab) 201

The European election results are just hot off the press. We won as many votes nationally as Labour and the Liberal Democrats put together. We came first, increasing our vote share and we're thirteen per cent ahead of Labour. It's clear that the Liberal Democrat's position on Europe is not resonating with voters. And no wonder, when they have reneged on their promise to support a referendum on the renamed European Constitution, voted to abolish Britain's rebate from the EU, and want to scrap the pound and join the Euro!