Labour's red rose decapitated

I was very fortunate to be in Preston on work experience this week where I got to see the end of an era.

An article on the BBC's website before the local elections this week was entitled 'Will Labour's rose be pruned?'.

Well the answer was no. It was beheaded in front of my very eyes as the Tories swept back into power in Lancashire after 28 years.

Standing in County Hall, Preston watching the results come in was really exciting and I was very lucky that my brief period at the Lancashire Evening Post has coincided with this election. Being in was all the proof I needed as to why journalism is such a fantastic career to have.

Not every day will be as exciting as this, I've learnt this already, but events such as elections are so exciting.

A lot of people expected Labour to lose seats in Lancashire and the Conservatives would be the ones to pounce but I think neither party would have expected the turnaround to be quite as dramatic.

Before the election Labour had 44 seats on the county council with the Conservatives holding 31. Afterwards the Tories gained 20 seats taking them to 51 whilst Labour lost 28 seats taking them to a mere 16. Staggering. Especially when you consider some of the councillors booted out included seven cabinet members and the chairman of the party in Lancashire.

As the results came in so did the new councillors and a few MPs revelling in their party's success, topped off with a visit from David Cameron.

Being with the journalist sent down to cover the results was excellent. So many stats needed to be found and double checked to make sure they were correct before publication such as:
Was that seat gained or held by a party?
Which party lost that seat?
Who was the councillor booted out?
Did they have a position?
How large was the majority?
What was the turnout?
How does all this compate to 2005?

That was what I spent more of my afternoon doing. Running around asking various officials at the council where I could find all this information and what it all meant. It was a really enjoyable day and in a way reignited my interest in politics.

OK I didn't get to do the interviews but watching Chris Visser from the LEP talk to Nigel Evans and Mark Hendrick and other political figures I learnt a lot about how to talk to them and what to ask.

Despite all the scandals recently surrounding MPs' expenses it can be a very interesting subject and days like this were there's so much going on, so many people to interview and so much information that needs finding out.

I must ensure that my next work experience coincides with the general election!