VITUALLY nobody I called on during the county council election campaign raised anything to do with Hampshire County Council, which is what the election was for.

We didn’t discuss the fact that it had frozen the council tax for three years, we didn’t discuss the cuts it has had to make in some services, the closest we got were a couple of complaints about the potholes.

Instead, the issues raised were, in order of importance: immigration; welfare benefits; blooming Abu Qatada again; an EU referendum, and gay marriage.

None of which has anything remotely to do with our county council, but they are important issues and I was happy to discuss them. Not least because the government has made a start on the first two by cutting immigration by a third, and with the most extensive reform of welfare benefits ever, with more to come on both fronts.

On the other three, I can understand the voter frustration because I share it. The fact is that Abu Qatada is still here because two British courts have ruled in his favour this year.

The solution is to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 and that was in my manifesto in 2010. Unfortunately, the voters did not give us a majority in Parliament with which to deliver it.

Have a thought for the frustration of the politician who is given a kicking by the voters for not doing something when they denied him the tools to do it with. The same is true of the question of an EU referendum.

The Prime Minister has promised one in the next parliament if he gets a majority, but he certainly hasn’t got a majority to deliver one in this parliament. He has made a good start however, he has cut the EU budget for the first time ever, he has vetoed an EU treaty for the first time ever, and he has passed legislation which requires a referendum if any further power is passed to the EU.

That leaves us with gay marriage: it clearly isn’t popular in the New Forest. It certainly isn’t the fault of our county councillors, so I had to take it on the chin when they berated me about it at the count last Thursday and in the small hours of Friday morning.

Sometimes however, you just have to do what you think is right: gay marriage won’t affect my marriage, or that of anyone else, but it will be a source of joy and celebration for those who will now be able to enter into it, nobody else will even notice. In the New Forest West parliamentary seat five county council divisions remained unchanged, and only one changed hands (going to an independent). I am certainly not minded to panic or demand that the government change course.