Was Jack Dromey at the same election as the rest of us?
No one could ever accuse Jack Dromey, the new MP for Birmingham Erdington, of being anything other than one of Labour's loyal footsoldiers.
That, presumably, is why he was rewarded with a safe seat.
The fact that he is married to Labour's deputy leader, Harriet Harman, and is the leader of one of the country's largest trade unions obviously helped too.
When Mr Dromey arrived at the election count, he came accompanied by what the spin doctors call "a line".
The first thing he said to me, before his result was declared, in fact before any results anywhere in the country were declared, was that the election had turned out to be disastrous for the Conservatives. This piece of intelligence was based on an exit poll and had presumably been relayed to Mr Dromey by Labour strategists.
His explanation for claiming that things were going so badly for David Cameron was that, several months ago, the Tory leader was way ahead of Gordon Brown and Labour in the opinion polls and therefore the predicted 38 per cent support from voters for the Tories was very poor and amounted to support for Labour, who after all had been in office for 13 years.
Four hours later, Mr Dromey was trotting out the same spin.
Twenty-four hours later, his view of events had changed not a jot, even though events hardly bore out what he was saying.
Interviewed by Jeremy Paxman for the BBC, Mr Dromey could only repeat parrot-fashion his claim of a disastrous Tory performance, even though it was pointed out to him that the Conservatives gained two million more votes than Labour and that Labour support, at 30 per cent, was only marginally better than that achieved by Michael Foot in 1983.
Paxman, for once, was almost lost for words at such chutzpah, although he did manage a customary sneer.
You have to wonder whether Mr Dromey was at the same election as the rest of us.
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What an evil, odious little apparatchik Dromey is! I note he also made a sneering comment about not sharing a bed with David Cameron - yep, he and Harriet Harperson truly deserve each other!
Dromey was still in cloud cuckoo land the next day... such a shame he was parachuted into Erdington when there are lots of decent local labour folk who could do a proper job as the MP!
Dromey's appalling outburst revealed just how arrogant the Labour Party has become, as if it has a natural right to rule.
His declaration that 'Britain is not a Conservative country' was remarkable - how complacent of Mr Dromey to behave as if he's now the spokesperson for 44 million voters- two million more of whom voted for the Conservatives than for the Labour party!
What a thoroughly inadequate man.
That dismal Dromey quote can be heard 47 minutes into this BBC clip, in an interview with Jeremy Paxman:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00shn1m/Election_2010_12001300/
Is this the best that Labour could come up with in Erdington, or does it reflect the New Labour/Unite Union vice-like grip on the party's selection procedures?
Jack Dromey is a vile and odious creature who seems to want a continuation of Labour despite the inconvemiences of an electorate saying otherwise. I am surprised people have voted in a man who obviously cares so little for democracy and whose grip of reality is as detached as Gordon Brown's.
It is with complete and utter dismay that Jack Dromey has secured the parliamentary seat for Erdington.
We can only attribute his apparent success to stronger Labour support in the Stockland Green area. Certainly, in Erdington B24 there was an overwhelming level of support for Robert Alden and the Conservative Party. Mr Alden has campaigned tirelessly for improvements to Erdington and is regularly seen out and about in all weathers serving the constituency. He has also grown up in Birmingham and is genuinely in tune with local people and the issues that concern them most.
Contrast this track record with that of Jack Dromey, a man who personifies what Labour has become - not representative and not in tune with the interests of the ordinary decent folk who pay their taxes and abide by the law.
I hope Mr Alden takes heart from the huge swing in support that the Conservatives have received in Erdington and continues to work towards securing the parliamentary seat he rightfully deserves.
I guess Dromey must have qualities not immediately evident, to have navigated so successfully through the smoke-filled corridors of the TGWU for so many years, but on his absurd display against Paxman, intellect would not be among them. As a lifelong Labour voter, it was especially disappointing to see that such a dullard had been parachuted into the party's equivalent of Saffron Walden.