Ouch. Of course that hurt.

There is not much point pretending that the election results in Shepway for the Lib Dems - in common with much of the rest of the country - were other than awful.

On Shepway District Council the Lib Dems lost every seat, and failed to gain any of our targets. Shepway Council now has 45 Conservatives and 2 People First Councillors. People First now have the responsibility to act as the opposition to the Conservatives - a role that they really didn't live up to well in the last 4 years, often aligning themselves with the Conservatives on key votes. And with just 2 opposition councillors, it's almost an impossible task in itself - there are simply not enough of them to have much sway, even if they choose to stand up and do so.

And what's really frustrating is that locally, I believe the Liberal Democrats ran a good campaign in the wards we were fighting to win. Our agent Darren Briddock ran an excellent campaign that deserved so much more. Our councillors and campaigners put up a strong fight. But it's absolutely clear that whatever we did we were going to get buried in a national swing against the Party - voters taking it out on the Lib Dems for joining a coalition nationally with the Conservatives. Ironically, locally we were the only serious alternative TO the Conservatives (Labour, despite gains nationally, again failed to win a SINGLE seat in Shepway) but that message was clearly drowned out.

Of course being in the coalition nationally has hurt our support at this election. I don't see that as a reason to pull out, seek a new Leader or even panic. But it is certainly time we worked a lot harder on selling our message.

It is absolutely clear that we need to get better about selling the positives we have brought to Government. The BBC estimate that around 75% of the Liberal Democrat manifesto from the General Election is now in the programme for Government - massively more than we could have expected on the way into the election. Yes - there have been compromises. That's the nature of a coalition - no-one gets everything they want. And no Lib Dem went into politics wanting to make cuts on the scale that are currently being faced. They hurt. No-one wants to do it. But that's the deal. Sorry - there is no money left. That's the position the country was left in.

If done right, the Liberal Democrats will deserve credit for being part of a Government that is having to sort out an almightly financial mess, and will leave a more liberal country, with less of the low paid paying tax, decent pensions for all, a dismantled surveillance state, and more power put into the hands on local councils and local people. We need to be delivering that goal, and telling people loud and clear that without the Lib Dems being in Government, it simply wouldn't have happened. And nationally, currently, we're not.

So where next?

I will continue as a County Councillor for Folkestone West to stand up for local people, to give local people a real say in how their money is spent locally, to hold the Conservatives to account. Gary Fuller and I will do the same on Sandgate Parish Council, and Lee Walker will stand up for Harbour ward residents on Folkestone Town Council.

Despite their pledge not to cut "frontline services", I have real fears locally for what the Conservatives in Kent are about to do to services like our Youth Centres and Libraries. Will all those services - across Shepway - still be here in a year's time? Who will speak up against closures and cuts? Here in Shepway, that will be the Liberal Democrats. We need to make REALLY sure that when savings need to be made, they are logical, not rushed, give local people and groups the opportunity to get involved in ensuring services are still provided in future, and, above all, are fair. That's really worth fighting for.

I'm desperately sorry for the excellent Councillors and campaigners across Shepway who lost their seats on Thursday. It's not fair on them, but no-one ever said politics was always fair. But I know they will be back - doing what they do best, which is standing up for local people and local services.