Politics is a rough business. It doesn’t always pan out the way you imagine or would like. On Thursday voters chose to retire the council Leader, Simon Letts, and the Leader of the opposition, Jeremy Moulton.

Both wanted to continue and neither expected to lose. Although being a politician can often be brutal, you only need to look at some of the comments on this site to see that, it should not be forgotten that people enter politics to serve the public.

That’s what Jeremy and Simon did for many years and we should acknowledge their significant contributions.

Simon gave up teaching to run the council and Jeremy put his career in finance on hold to serve his constituents. People frequently forget the sacrifices councillors make and instead focus on the things they disagree with.

Southampton City Council and the city in general will be poorer for having lost these two giants in local politics.