In a democracy political parties exist to win elections and take power. They win elections to put into practice as far as is possible what they believe to be a better way of running things. It is a fact of political life that you can’t win them all.

So let’s just recap the facts of what happened in Reading on 5 May.

• Fact: In Reading Labour won 9 seats (+3), The Conservatives won 5 seats (-1)
• Fact: Labour won 39.9% of the vote; a 5.8% lead over the Conservatives.
• Fact: Labour’s share of the vote was up by 8.76%. The Conservative share fell by 1.0%
• Fact: In 2010 David Cameron took office on 36.1% of the vote; a 7.1% lead over Labour

By any criteria the Conservatives lost.

A few more facts:

• Fact: The Lib Dems won no seats (-3).
• Fact: The Liberal Leader was unseated with one of the largest swings in the modern history of Reading elections.
• Fact: In one ward the Lib Dems came fifth behind a fringe candidate
• Fact: The Lib Dem vote fell by 12.8% with more than half their voters deserting them.

The inescapable conclusion is that those people deserted the Lib Dems because had voted for a party they did not believe would go into coalition with the Conservatives and which had made rash national election pledges, claiming afterwards they only did so because they thought they could not win. From their actions in nominating the defeated Conservatives to continue leading the Council it is plain to see that the Lib Dems just don’t get it.

Fact: the two coalition parties lost nearly 14% of their vote

In the light of all this it is hard to see why they seem to be taking this defeat so badly. On the basis of these facts Labour clearly had a right to seek control of the Council. These are the rules of elections fought under the system that the Conservatives campaign so hard to retain only last month. They can hardly now claim that some kind of AV that wasn’t gives them a legitimate claim to continue their rule at the Civic Centre.

That their spell in power was so short cannot be laid at Labour’s door. Had the Conservatives wished to take power with the backing of the Liberal Democrats when Labour lost its majority in 2008 then there would have been nothing that Labour could have done about it. At no point then did the Conservatives seek to put the Lib Dems on the spot by putting forward their candidate to lead the Council. What was their message to the people who voted for them? It was, ‘sorry, we don’t want to run the Council’. Despite the Reading Lib Dems apparent loathing of Labour and all its works, the Liberal Democrats knew that had they backed the Conservatives before the last election their candidates at the General Election would have suffered badly. It hard not to conclude their decision was all about Party Politics.

Labour by seeking to form an administration was merely keeping its deal with its voters – this year that involved taking the mayoralty. The Mayor chose, as any democrat in that position should, to place his casting vote in line with the verdict of the electorate at the ballot box. Labour has already made it clear that there will be a Conservative Mayor again when circumstances allow. It wasn’t personal, it was just business.

But, as Labour’s difference of opinion with the Green Party over City Status for Reading showed, it wasn’t possible for Labour to offer a cabinet seat to a party which fails to understand the importance of projecting Reading effectively on the international stage. The Green Party was right to say that this is hardly the most important issue on the minds of the people on the No 17 bus, but those people do want Reading to be able more effectively to bring investment, and therefore jobs, to our town. If in the global market, which the Green Party may despise but is nonetheless the real world in which we have to make a living, that helps Reading compete then it is worth investing the very few quid of our Council Tax it takes to make a bid. The publicity alone is worth the money and no risk, no reward. That’s why, beyond a very small segment of the community, the Green Party can win very little support.