Losing with grace is important. When I lost my council seat I was shocked and upset. Going into the election we thought we would do just enough to hold against against the inevitable tide locally against Labour. But we lost. /1

The campaign was ugly. Unsurprisingly myself and my colleagues had insults thrust at us throughout the campaign. The Conservatives used Labour's problems with racism to their own advantage and played heavily on this despite the Council vote being about housing, parking etc... /2

Thats not to blame the Tories. It was Labour's fault for giving them that opening in the first place and politics can be a nasty business. /3

Anyway. I lost. So did Kalim and Agnes. We made a conscious decision to wait for the announcement, despite already knowing we had lost. /4

For me, this is because our democracy is more important than Conservatism or Socialism or anything in between. The idea of the peaceful transfer of power, even at a local council level is important. /5

So I stood on the stage. I listened whilst the returning officer read out the numbers we lost by. Then there were cheers from our opponents. And then I shook the hands of the three Conservative candidates who beat us. /6

And that was it. We lost. But ultimately there is something important in losing with honour. Listening to the loss, absorbing it. Its one of the funny things we do in UK elections that are quite symbolic and I think it happens in order to be symbolic of that peaceful transfer.