Last week saw two principal by-elections. In Kingstanding, Birmingham MBC the Conservatives won a shock 138 majority over Labour in what is traditionally a safe Labour ward (the Conservatives last won it in the 1960s). The Tory candidate was elected on his fifth attempt after a heavily localised campaign concentrating on issues affecting individual streets, reminiscent of how the Liberal Democrats have campaigned over the years. The other parties failed to make an impact. UKIP came third on 7.9%, the Liberal Democrats fourth and National Front last. In Richmondshire an Independent candidate retained Reeth and Arkengarthdale ward with a 190 majority over the Tory candidate the only candidates in the by-election.
The Liberal Democrats held two Town Council seats. In Belmont ward of Hereford City Council Jacqui Carwardine (pictured with Lord Bradshaw) won 40% of the vote in a contest with strong opposition from a local party (It’s Our County) and Independents. The winning team put their success down to a strong local candidate with a proven track record, effective use of Connect to target known voters, high levels of door knocking and literature focused on local issues.
In Eastleigh the Liberal Democrats have retained the winning momentum achieved in last year’s Westminster by-election by holding Wildern ward on Hedge End Town Council with 45% of the vote. UKIP and the Consevatives both gained 17%, Labour and an Independent both achieved 9%. The County Division that includes Wildern Town Council ward was a close race last year with UKIP coming close to winning the County seat, on the back of the Parliamentary by-election. This was the first electoral test since then, and would give a good indication of the land in the run up to Borough elections in May. The Liberal Democrats highlighted a tweet put out by the local UKIP which depressed the UKIP polling day vote and helped motivate Liberal Democrat voters.
For all the detailed results see the ALDC elections page.
* ALDC is the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners
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4 Comments
Eastleigh, Some momentum!!! Who is kidding, what did our percentage vote fall by in the parliamentary by election 16% approx!!!! We must stop this ridiculous spinning.
As with last year, it is the excellent work of Keith House and the locals in Easleigh that makes the difference down there. Any predictions if or elsewhere based on an Eastleigh result are worthless unless the scientists have worked out a way of cloning Keith House.
How large was these turnouts? Is there a disengaging in the democratic process by large sections of the population?
Beyond the Liberal democrats there is not much to inspire the electorate, so it is up to us to relaunch our party.
With the record in government, the best we can do for 2015 gen election is to make clear we did moderate the excesses of conservatism, and to contrast in the media how we have changed what would have been unnecessarily harsh policies should the Tories been on their own.
Its going to be a hard job since we have already somewhat moderated the government, the larger party can claim that they have moderated and appear as pseudo liberals.
This is where we need to make clear to the electorate LibDems are the only real Liberals in government!!
Promote public saving and investment (higher interest rate for savers) – the Tories are not even the party of capitalism, so start there.
The Tories have not even got rid of the unfair council (property) tax for middle class people: even when you realise this method of taxation is a functional wealth tax.
Now we must win over the centre, centre-right leaning voters, on the values of concern for the environment, Europe and democracy this year to be ready for 2015 and beyond.
Theakes:
We did try to kid ourselves about the parliamentary by-election in Eastleigh, which gave UKIP a big boost and us a tiny one. But this local result is genuinely good.