Election post-mortems are fascinating. Depending on one’s world view, the outcome of last week’s council elections vindicates the view held.

UKIP’s collapse and the surge of the Lib Dems, it is argued, demonstrates beyond any doubt whatsoever that the country wants to stay in the EU.

Labour’s drop in councillors absolutely reinforces that the country does not want a second referendum.

Meanwhile the collapse of support for my party (the Conservatives) demonstrates beyond any doubt whatsoever that the country hates Theresa May’s deal and wants a granite hard no-deal Brexit.

Maybe. I have no doubt that there will have been people voting last week that support any number of those arguments. But to claim that the results absolutely clear up confusion about what the country thinks is nonsense.

Indeed, some of the results are confusing. Redditch saw a pick-up in Conservative councillors. But with only one vote per ward (we had mostly three) and hardly any independents standing, it’s not comparing like with like.

So, for what it’s worth, here is my take on this.

People don’t vote for divided parties. People tend to vote for a party based in their leader and irrespective of what you think of the Prime Minister. We know she is leaving.

No one knows what the Conservatives’ policies will be. Whilst our local team here have good policies for the local community, without knowing the direction of travel for the party as a whole, it is impossible to vote for any firm ideology.

The same applies to Labour. More than half Labour MPs don’t want Jeremy Corbyn to be Prime Minister. Trashing one’s own brand will not endear voters to supporting it.

National politics aside, my Conservative colleagues on Wyre Forest council, whilst still the largest party, do not have enough councillors to take control.

They have stepped aside to allow a coalition of other parties to form an administration and I think that is the right thing to do.

This is the first time that I have worked with a council that is not Conservative. But I look forward to engaging with the new administration.

I have always worked in the background to help the council get more funding or other help as necessary and I have every intention of doing so in the future.

After all, the interests of our community must come before party politics.