I missed the count for the local elections on Thursday night. Along with several others, including a happy landlady, I was looking around a brewery in deepest Norfolk. I understand it went on a bit in the sports hall, until about 4am or so. We were all tu

I missed the count for the local elections on Thursday night. Along with several others, including a happy landlady, I was looking around a brewery in deepest Norfolk. I understand it went on a bit in the sports hall, until about 4am or so. We were all tucked up by then dreaming of Wherrys and Nelson.

The upshot of the day's voting was a spectacular blue wave that surfed all five Tory candidates safely into office on the district council. The same tide bore enough of their colleagues along to give the Conservatives overall power in The Grange for the next four years. Now that they can do just about anything that they want to I suppose we can all expect our rubbish to be left every other week "for our own good", The Grange to be sold and a new bureauocrat's palace built on Angel Drove and for car parking charges to be levied in Ely as soon as possible.

Newmarket thought about charging for parking some time ago and what a spectacular success that's been! The Rookery was a remarkable mess with machines that didn't work and their park-and-ride sucked in council taxpayers' money and generated very few passengers. Now the town's long-standing department store, Palmers, is in the middle of a closing-down sale. The two events may not be related; but they might.