Cllr Paul Dundas is the Leader of the Conservative Group on Colchester City Council.
In the small hours of Friday morning on May 3rd and in the two days which followed a scene was played out in many a sports hall, leisure centre or other civic building which generally involved a Conservative Group Leader being asked by press and others whether they were ready for the inevitable disaster and the stock “not a single vote has been counted yet so let’s just wait and see” answer given. Then, a few hours later the same people would gleefully descend to listen to the excuses whilst the poor Group Leader explained the results and possibly the loss of their own seat. I know exactly what it is like – been there, done that, got the T-Shirt in 2022.
Sadly, for many of my colleagues across the country that is exactly how it played out. However, in a line drawn roughly across North Essex there were some bright spots with Conservatives retaining control in both Epping Forest and Harlow and here, in Colchester, retaining all the seats we were defending on the City Council.
When people ask me what Colchester politics is like I usually reply “trench warfare”. All political parties seem on a constant political war footing and are used to full-on campaigning. If a Council by-election gets announced every party seems to go all-out on it – even the one which came fourth with five per cent of the vote. Part of this comes down to electing in thirds – a situation we would love to change – but also the constant knife-edge political balance of the Council which was probably no overall control when the Romans were here. To say that every political party is battle-hardened would be an understatement.
This year after a very active campaign by everyone the end result was the Liberal Democrats losing one seat to Labour and no other changes. I’d love to say there was a magic secret I could share with colleagues as to how this happened. However, the truth as always with elections is you are never actually sure what you did wrong and what you did right. Furthermore, had there been a few votes in a different direction, a couple more Reform candidates, a couple more Independents and some different tactics from opponents it could easily have gone the other way. Local elections are always about small margins.
Nonetheless, we were pleased with the result. Not only did we retain all our seats but we also saw some vote increases in other important wards which keep us in contention in future years. So, the key question is, what did we do right and what did we do wrong?
You would perhaps expect me to say this, but the most important thing is we had a great team. The constant political battle at all levels here has resulted in a very close bonded group of Councillors and Volunteers who have been through good times and bad times together. Most of us socialise together, many of us are very close friends, and we look after one another. Our local associations have also done a great job recently of recruiting new people. It would be easy to fall into a trap of thinking at the moment no one wants to join the party. Not true. Not true at all.
This year we had a number of first-time candidates and our youngest was 18. We had several in their early 20s. We had a great variety of backgrounds and accents. When faced with the latest bundle of leaflets to deliver I can’t find words to describe how beneficial it is to have some young legs in the delivery team!
The other thing we did slightly differently from the past is we were a little more “political”. We primarily battle Liberal Democrats in Colchester and they are very good at promoting themselves as just nice local people doing nice local things. To be fair, many of them are, but they also run the Council so are responsible for the debts, the failed projects and the wasting of residents’ money. This time around we were a little more aggressive at pointing out their failings. We didn’t ever attack individual councillors (always counterproductive) but did push a narrative of where the money was being spent. This had a positive effect on wavering Conservatives resulting in “well, I never knew they were doing that!” being a common expression on the doorstep.
Above all, despite the difficult background I won’t dwell on, we were still confident of saying who we were, what we stood for and what existing councillors had done for their area – not just as Conservatives but also as individuals. This may have meant some people liking us a little less but no one was left confused and knew who and what they were voting for.
I said above I could find no magic solution but all I can say is stick together, be proud of what you stand for and be confident in your message and see what happens. Meanwhile in Colchester we will be preparing for a closely contested Parliamentary seat followed by County elections in 2025, then all out City elections in 2026, then another third in 2027, then another third in 2028. If New York is the City which never sleeps then Colchester is the one which never stops voting.
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Author: Paul Dundas
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