Lib Dems gain council seats in Lincolnshire, Hampshire
One Parliamentary and six principal authority council by-elections this week, including some good news for the Liberal Democrats on the candidate front:
On to the results:
Congratulations to new Lib Dem councillor Murray Turner for scoring that Lib Dem gain.
And a second gain too:
Congratulations to new councillor, Jason Sangster.
Elsewhere:
Thank you to Lib Dem candidate Geoffrey Matthews.
That second place for Kate Smith was the first time the Lib Dems have finished better than third in this ward. Promising progress!
Thank you to Allan Vickerman for putting the Lib Dems back on the ballot here after last time’s no-show.
Thank you to Lib Dem candidate Trevor Powell.
For what all this means for the running total of council by-election results since the last May elections, see my council by-elections scorecard here.
And in the Parliamentary by-election:
Thank you to Anna Fryer for standing for the Liberal Democrats.
These by-election results round-ups cover principal authority by-elections as it’s only those for which comprehensive results are available. But this week, this by-election at the town/parish/community council level did catch my eye:
Understanding the opinion polls
For understanding what is happening in politics, by-elections have the advantage of being real votes in real ballot boxes. But the opinion polls have the advantage of trying to be a representative sample of voters, not just those in the places that happen to have by-elections. To understand the polls properly – and what they do and don’t really tell us – see my book, Polling UnPacked: The History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls.
Get by-election results by email
If you sign up for my daily email with the latest pieces from this site, you’ll also get included as a little bonus the full set of council by-election results each week:
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you shouldn’t try to make anything of Kidlington, it’s a Parish Council, where everybody should be independent anyway.. at Parish level party politics just gets in the way of working together for the community.
Hi,
When are we going to change our poilicy regarding by elections.
The sort of results we get in strong Labour seats are embarrassing, in the past we would fight these with gusto and get 35% of the vote and hasmmer the Tories. NOW well!!!
It is all very well having some sort of understanding with Labour but in these contests we should be coming second. 3% of the vore does us no favours in the public eye and decimates any thoughts that we are a national party.
Can we examine our approach urgently.