There were just two principal council by-elections yesterday. In the Cornwall UA contest in Mevagissey, the Conservatives increased their vote share in the ward by 8.2% to gain the seat from Labour in a closely thought election. The Conservative candidate polled 32% to win with a majority of 67 ahead of UKIP in second. The Liberal Democrats were the only other party to see an increase in their vote share from the previous contest in the ward during the 2013 local elections, as UKIP, Labour and the Green Party all saw a vote share drop. A 4.3% increase saw Christopher Maynard poll 18% as he finished just 7 votes adrift of the Labour candidate to finish in fourth. The election sees Labour reduced to just 7 representatives on Cornwall council whilst the Conservatives have increased their representation to 31 although they remain third in terms of council representation behind Independents and the Liberal Democrats.
In Rugby, the Conservatives saw a 12.3% decrease in their vote share in Bilton but still managed to retain their seat in the ward with a healthy majority of 343 votes. However the Liberal Democrats secured a 10.2% swing from the Conservatives as Lesley George received 17.6% of the vote to finish in third place, one place higher than the party managed in the ward’s previous election in May. UKIP polled 20.4%, despite not fielded a candidate earlier this year, to secure another second place finish. In addition, Labour saw their vote share drop once again, as they finished 68 votes behind Lesley in fourth place.
* ALDC is the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners
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14 Comments
Another couple of dismal results for Liberal Democrats but well done to our candidates who at least flew the flag and gave people the chance to vote for our party.
However brilliant our candidates and their campaigns were this week, they were clearly unable to counter the national tidal wave that is drowning Liberal Democrats every week.
We used to say that there is no such thing as “a good second place”.
Nowadays we need to remind ALDC that there is no such things as a good THIRD place.
Might have a good result for you next week, John…
Yet another bad week for the Lib Dems. Two strong areas, and the best we can manage is a third place. The catastrophe that is Nick Clegg’s leadership continues. There is nothing for us but the wastelands until the man has the courage to fess up to his self made disaster and go.
Strong intervention by UKIP in both cases and it is Labour who suffer most. Interesting.
@David Evans
“There is nothing for us but the wastelands until the man has the courage to fess up to his self made disaster and go.”
An utterly ineffective argument until you can suggest someone better for the job and what, in precise terms, they might actually *do* that would miraculously rescue the party. The total absence of willing candidates to replace Nick Clegg slightly undermines your point, doesn’t it?
In any case, increasing our vote in both cases suggests improvement, even from a low base. This is what we should be hoping for right now and for supposed party supporters to queue up to pour scorn on an improved vote share is rather negative and destructive right now.
RC 8th Nov ’14 – 9:49am
..”….for supposed party supporters to queue up to pour scorn on an improved vote share is rather negative ..”
RC, There are only five comments in this thread and not one of them “pours scorn” on anything.
Three of the five comments come from people using their real name so it is easy to establish that they are genuine party supporters.
You however chose to hide behind the initials “RC” so we can only assume that you are are at best a “supposed” party supporter.
For all we know you are posting direct from UKIP HQ.
@ David Evans
“two strong areas”
David your specific point is wrong. Rugby has never had a Liberal Democrat MP and last elected a Liberal MP 91 years ago. It has never had a constituency visit from the Leader of the Federal Party and has not traditionally been regarded as a strong area.
If however your general point is that Rugby must now be considered one of our stronger areas (and if this point is true) then your general thesis remains incontestable.
RC – What utter codswallop. I do not need to suggest anyone. There are over 50 alternatives and the miracle they would do is remove the cause of the party’s disastrous showing. If Nick did fess up to his responsibility there would be willing candidates.
As for your fig leaf point about vote improvement, there was a time, not long ago, when we regularly made gains in local government by-elections, week after week. Now people like you have to talk up a week when we increased our vote by a mere seven in Mevagissey. In Cornwall – until recently a heartland. Where in 2009 we finished second with 680 votes and now you hide behind a so called improvement to 197 where we finished fourth. Get real.
I’m sorry but the destruction has happened over Nick’s six years of leadership. I’m positive we can turn the corner, but we have to deal with the root cause of the problem. Sadly the more some people remain in denial, the longer and more difficult the recovery will be.
Richard. We have seven councillors in Rugby. They work damned hard and they have learned how to survive. In today’s party under Nick, they are a beacon of strength. They deserve our admiration. They certainly have mine.
At least these elections wre closely thought!
The Liberal Democrats were already losing momentum in local elections before 2010 hence the deposition of the 2 previous leaders and the installation of Mr Clegg. If he resigns someone will no doubt replace him but unless they can clearly and unequivocally demonstrate that they were totally and absolutely opposed to all the compromises and broken promises inherent in coalition government – something which LDs have been seeking for decades in view of their support for PR since they lost their position as one of the two major parties but not before then, then that person will not make any difference. It was not just Mr Clegg who promised to abolish tuition fees etc but the whole party and some are still advocating that policy believe it or not.
With the problems that are wrecking western economies it is not surprising that some people are saying that leftish parties like Labour, the Liberal Democrats and possibly the Greens, which wish to continue with unrealistic spending commitments,have become redundant and this seems to be the view of a large part of the electorate.
We need new policies for a changed world.
Looking to next Thursday, I see there are 6 by elections and we only appear to have candidates in 2!!!! We should retake St Ediths in Cambridge but 2 out of 6, what does this tell us.
theakes: It says two things 1. the party membership is timid and 2. they are wisely not contesting hopeless seats which would result in humiliation and bad publicity
nvelope2003
I don’t know about your area but we are still being exhorted to fight all council seats by a HQ increasingly divorced from reality