In praise of...democracy

Well, you can't argue with it, that's for sure.  The national picture may be puzzling but the local one was certainly clear.  Southwark Council is now in Labour hands by a clear majority.  
It brings to an end 8 years of Lib Dem control of Southwark, of which I believe those involved can be really proud.  I suppose the test would be, is it a better place than when you started ?   Bear in mind that Labour had run the council for as long as it existed before 2002.  The education department had been deemed so dysfunctional that the Govt had imposed external management of the service, schools results were poor and very few schools were deemed good or outstanding by Ofsted, housing disrepair for Council tenants were at an all-time high, there were no doorstep recycling collections, the streets were judged the filthiest in London and those things have all been turned around.  It's not perfect but it's a lot better.  As well as that, the regeneration schemes which had stalled in the north of the borough have been developed with B Square, B Spa and Canada Water regeneration schemes all visibly progressing.

So at the end of 8 years, immediate unemployment is the order of the day (with no redundancy payment).  Was it all worth it?  BM is enormously proud of B husband and there can be no regrets because we went into this knowing it could end this way.  Many friends looked at what we had chosen and thought we were mad; the insecurity, no pension etc but it has been worth it.  Southwark is an amazing place to live and B Dad has contributed towards making it so over the past 8 years.  

That said, BM for one is done now...