Return to politics gets my vote, but I still see red

AS I thought, Labour didn’t win my neighbourhood council seat of Glusburn, Cross Hills and Sutton in Craven.

Our candidate Chris Thorp, a retired IT manager, came third behind the independent who has represented the village for yonks.

So, no change, except that we will be ruled from faraway Northallerton under a new Tory-dominated unitary authority.

That’s the price you pay for semi-rural life. Conservatives predominate. However, the results for Labour are much better than most of the media made out.

Of course, the Tory newspapers always play down our success. And the BBC leans over backwards to avoid upsetting a Conservative government. Much good it does them. Beeb-hating ministers plan to scrap the licence fee and reduce public broadcasting to a subscription channel.

But I digress. Keir Starmer can take satisfaction in retaking Kirklees (centred on Huddersfield) and holding on to power in Leeds, Wakefield, Calderdale (Halifax), Barnsley and Bradford.

Hull went to the Lib Dems, and Sheffield is power-shared with the Greens.

Yorkshire remains largely red in town and city halls, and the Brexit tide that swept Bojo’s buffs into “safe” Labour constituencies is ebbing. I can’t wait for the by-election in Wakefield, caused by the resignation of Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan after his conviction for sexually assaulting a teenage boy.

But I will have to wait because the Conservatives refuse to name the date.

Labour is fast-tracking its selection process for an “exceptional candidate”.

Good luck to whoever gets it. It feels like normal political life is beginning again: cause for hope, if not yet expectation.