Last week was a good week for………

Tony Arbour, who was re-elected to the GLA for the fourth time. Tony’s constituency includes Kingston, Richmond and Hounslow Boroughs and he manages to get round them all and keep abreast of local affairs over this vast area. He used to represent Surbiton on the GLC, when it still existed.

It was also a good week for

Boris Johnson, re-elected Mayor of London. I had the pleasure of meeting Boris a couple of times as he visited Kingston, Chessington and Surbiton on the campaign trail. Because Boris was re-elected it was a good week too for the people of Greater London, whose Council Tax will be kept under the firm control Boris has maintained throughout his first term, ending the profligacy of the Livingstone years.

It was a bad week for our old friend Pinocchio. Why? His mayoral candidate came fourth and his local candidate was scarcely visible and his candidate in the Coombe Hill by-election came third, behind Labour (and over 1000 behind the Conservatives!) What is more, his famous Focus Team,( you know, the one that’s supposed to work for you all the year round) was nowhere to be seen throughout the local campaign. I counted 6 communications from the Cons, one from Labour (posted), nothing from the Greens, one from UKIP (also posted with stamps at least 30 years old and having half-penny denominations) and one very late, rather desultory Focus leaflet from the Lib Dems which suggested I should find out about their candidate from a website. What about the people not on-line, eh?

Ah well, mustn’t gloat – not much anyway.