New Mayor in Bedford

The people of Bedford have elected Dave Hodgson as the new Lib Dem Mayor. Dave is a great guy, who will do Bedford Borough proud. It was great to get up there and campaign for his election. The Tories thought this was going to be the precursor to beatingthe sitting Labour MP at the General Election. How wrong they were. Having selected their candidate in their experimental 'open primary' selection system, it appears that this caused divisions in the Tory ranks, amid claims of interference from Tory Central Office. Is this what will happen to the Tory localism agenda come the next election? Time will prove that it's only the Lib Dems that truly listen to local people and believe in passing power down to local communities.