Here’s some of the benchmarks the media set for the Liberal Democrats:
Financial Times: any gains would be “good performance”
Daily Telegraph: loses of less than 50 would make for a “good night”
Daily Mail: loses of less than 50 would make for a “good day”
… whilst the average prediction from readers of this site was for 34 loses.
And the results? With around two-thirds in, the party is on a net gain of 8.
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10 Comments
Hmmph, the day is young yet!!
It’s a good set of results; it doesnt show a significant forward march but neither is there radical slippage which might be expected with an unpopular government and a natural turning to the main opposition; although the gentle decline in vote share is one potential blot on the landscape.
So why were contributors to this site so pessimistic in their predictions?
I still want that mug
Does anyone know who won chorlton cum hardy in Manchester – i cant find the inforamtion anywhere!
Thanks
Put simply I thought that the Lib Dems would be squeezed by a widespread dissaffection with the government and we don’t want to be complacent – our vote share is down. It was a solid result, given the circumstances it is a minor triumph, basically it gives us a good base to build on for a general election.
I think Cleggy was getting a bit overexcited about your gains. I’m glad you lot humiliated Labour with getting a higher percentage of the vote, but I don’t think the Lib Dems can really claim it was a great night.
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
But it wasn’t a disaster Letters…it was a solid night and I have to say your party really failed to overwhelm the Lib Dems. We might well have expected to suffer heavy losses at the hands of a resurgent Tory Party but we didnt. I think there is alot to the claim that there is a mood of opposition to Labour but it is hardly a ringing call for a Conservative government – rather this oppositional mood is splintering off all over the place, some are going to the Tories, some to us, some are staying at home and some are entering the hinterland of the BNP.
It’s been a pretty good night
I think we can honestly say that we did better than most of us expected. Pushing Labour into 3rd nationally is great, as is the net gain of seats.
Many of these seats havent been tested since 2004 when we had a terrific result, so to make a net gain when the vote change since back then is -4% is great work.
The BBC is now reporting LDs as +28 councillors and +1 council. Great stuff!