End of an era

I have been carrying out a photography project on the Labour Party's election campaign in Stroud and last night was the climax. However, it did not end quite as planned..

David Drew was fighting to win back the seat from Tory Neil Carmichael and was favourite to succeed. He is a very popular local man who was widely regarded as an excellent MP before Carmichael narrowly defeated him in 2010. I think many people at the count felt it was just a case of how big a majority Drew would command.

When I arrived at 3am, I only needed to take a quick glance at the shellshocked faces of Labour activists to realise how things were going. Drew ended up comfortably beaten.

The outcome was hard to fathom and was a real shock. And it was a sad moment when Drew (second left) announced he would not be challenging again in the future.

I learned one important lesson from all this: if you do a project, be sure of your final outcome! I went to the count with pictures in my head of celebrating Labour supporters. Not only did I fail to get those shots, but the one sure market for my final images disappeared in the time it took to put a cross on a ballot paper. Ouch!

(The winner, Neil Carmichael, is pictured making his victory speech at Stroud Leisure Centre)