Victory (and a comment on the election result elsewhere)!

So there we are - safely returned as the Conservative councillor for Bingley Rural. With over 5,000 votes which is pretty humbling. Kathryn and I had eaten in The George (Cullingworth's excellent pub) and left for the start of our marathon counting process with well-wishes and assurances of confidence in my success ringing in our ears. Some 32 hours later (that's right thirty-two hours) the result above emerged. Lots of people's hard work rewarded.

Elsewhere in Bradford we'd already seen Labour's 'grip on the City' strengthened (as the local paper put it) with its candidates winning in Bradford West and Bradford East. And in doing so ridding the city of two divisive and bigoted MPs - George Galloway and David Ward. The defeat of Galloway was a national spectacle - as the first rumours came from the vote tallies at the count, Twitter began to celebrate the ousting of Britain's most divisive politician and holder of records for blocking people on social media.

So when, while awaiting the final couple of results from Keighley, George Grant who'd flown the Tory flag in the contest with Galloway invited us to a drink at Bradford Brewery it was impossible to refuse. After all this new Bradford institution had been the scene - virtually - of one great battle in the campaign to run George Galloway out of Bradford. A battle that, when the history is written (if anyone bothers), brought hundreds of new people to the fight.

We dashed through the torrential rain to join George Grant and arrived to witness (one loutish drunk aside) a scene of unusual Bradford unity as left and right wing folk of all races and creed cheered the defeat of a man who had tried to bring sectarian politics to Bradford. It was a good night.

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