November 11th is, of course, the day on which we all reflect on both the fragility and the price of the freedoms we are lucky enough to enjoy.  It also adds an extra resonance to the act of voting in an election that can often be lost on the other 51 Thursdays of a year.  There were five principal council by-elections that took place on the 11th and ALDC received reports of one election contested out in the towns.  The current political cold snap continues, with very little to cherry pick for Liberal Democrats; of the five elections, we were defending none, we stood candidates in two, and neither of those changed hands.

It was a good day for Independents.  An Independent held the one seat they were defending in the Hunsdon ward of East Hertfordshire District, and another took the Forres seat on Moray Council in Scotland from the Tories, who collapsed into third behind the SNP and the eventual Independent winner on first preferences.  The remaining three seats were all holds for the Conservative Party; a marginal decline in vote-share in the Rushall-Shelfield ward in Walsall wasn’t enough for Labour, who remained 28 votes behind.  The last time the Walsall seat was contested, the local Lib Dem team took a respectable 17.8%, but the absence of a candidate somewhat hampered efforts to build on that this time around.  On the Isle of Wight, Labour’s first attempt to win the Chale, Niton, and Whitwell ward yielded a haul of 76 and our candidate Malcolm Groves kept the Lib Dem vote steady.  Finally, in a three-way thriller in Bury St Edmunds Tower division of Suffolk County Council, the Tories held the second-place Independent off by 55 votes, and the Liberal Democrats placed fifth with a fraction less of the popular vote than in 2009.  There’s a little bit of silver glinting around the November clouds, none of our candidates registered a dramatic decrease in their vote-share and we did pick up a seat in the Pill ward of Saltash Town Council.

As the nights draw in and the air gets brisker, ALDC have rustled up some very fetching Christmas card and calendar templates for those character-building Winter rounds!  They can be accessed at the members-only section of the ALDC site here.  It’s onwards and upwards next week with a further six principal council by-elections, there’s a double election in Croxteth in Liverpool and one of those seats is the week’s only Lib Dem defence.  The very best of luck to all our candidates and campaigners across the country.

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

For many Egyptians, November 4th is better known as ‘Love Day’, a localised version of Valentine’s Day initially conceived, pun intended, in the 1970’s.  If anyone needs a bit of love after last Thursday, it is our Liberal Democrat campaign teams across the country who’ve had a bit of a torrid time.  

Of the seven principal authority by-elections that took place on the 4th, a total of four changed hands.  Our worst result on the day was the loss of the Lyth Valley ward on South Lakeland District Council to the Tories by a wafer-thin 23 votes.  A Conservative hold in Ponteland East on Northumberland County Council was cold comfort as they lost two of their defences to Labour.  Plaid picked up a seat in the Cenarth ward of Carmarthenshire County Council with a healthy 80% of the vote.  Labour were the main beneficiaries of the contests, holding a brace with successful defences in the Ladywell ward of Lewisham and Hulme in Manchester – where a turnout of only 10.9% makes it difficult to read much of a meaning into the result.  Labour also picked up Coleridge ward on Cambridge City Council and Moredon in Swindon from the Tories.  This leaves the net results for the main parties as; Labour up two, Tories down one, and Lib Dems down one.  

It’s high tide for cheap headlines and easy answers in the press, and a post-CSR bounce for Labour isn’t exactly a surprise.  Doing as we always do, keeping our focus on our communities, working our wards, listening to the people and letting them know what we’ve done for them in their area, is still the key to success.  It is worth remembering that when the smoke clears and the hot air cools down, we will still be there out delivering on our promises, and Labour will still be stood empty handed on the sidelines.  ALDC are here to make sure our members stay ahead of the game, with weekly updates on election news, best practice, and artwork templates.  There is also the G8 programme of financial assistance for council groups for the upcoming local elections, annual Kickstart two-day residential training event, and regional ‘Flying Start’ day-long training sessions scheduled across the country.  You can find details of all these and more at www.aldc.org.  The best of luck to all of our councillors, candidates, and campaigners in the field.

Craig Whittall
craig.whittall@aldc.org

There were nine principal council elections held on the 14th October and they continued to be encouraging. The Tories held one seat, the Independents  one seat, the Lib Dems two and Labour four. The only seat to change hands was a Labour gain from Plaid.  In the two Parish council elections reported to ALDC the Independents held one seat and there was a gain by the Lib Dems from Independent.

With all the controversy swirling around and within the Liberal Democrats last Thursdays results continued to confound the pundits. We were defending two seats.

In the Watford Central Ward we had a very strong local candidate with a high profile going in to the campaign. This was particularly useful given that our sitting councillor was moving to the USA. Labour and the Tories made much of that running on “"Fred not Florida".

Labour used of heavy knocking copy on the coalition cuts. One last minute leaflet implied we were closing a community centre on the large council estate in the ward! We remained positive, running on a hard working local candidate who had helped set up a community action group and our year long record of action. Labour threw five leaflets at us, a full colour Florida post card- personally addressed to voters, A5 blue ink letters(unaddressed) ,a personal letter to supporters and a good morning.

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With last week’s victory in Fylde putting a spring in our step, by-election watchers have been waiting to see whether this week’s crop of nine principal by-elections could turn it into a full-blown Indian summer just two days shy of Federal Conference.  The Conservatives held three seats, in Carlisle, Hackney, and the first of their two defences in Kensington and Chelsea.  Labour held the Park ward in Knowsley, and also took two seats in Worksop from the Tories; the Worksop South ward on Bassetlaw District Council and the Worksop West division on Nottinghamshire County Council.  Much better at fending off Labour’s attacks were this week’s Liberal Democrat teams, we saw off the reds at County level in the Cambridge East Chesterton division and, importantly, in the north of England with a win for John Potter in the Cadley ward of Preston City Council.

Our featured story today is a magnificent Liberal Democrat victory in the capital, where Linda Wade and the Kensington and Chelsea Lib Dem team increased their vote by a staggering 24% to take the Earl’s Court ward from a shell-shocked Tory party.  Such was the level of presumption at the count, that the officers initially suggested tallying up only the non-Conservative votes and merely subtracting them from the total to work out the inevitable Tory majority!  Unfortunately for them, a two-month election campaign and a candidate already widely respected for her role chairing a large local residents’ association proved potent enough to pop Kensington and Chelsea’s blue bubble.  Leading from the front on problems with social housing, air quality, and the legacy of the soon-to-be-demolished Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre, Linda’s personal following was augmented by an innovative approach to ‘zone one’ campaigning, which involved reconstructing walk-maps by building-type rather than location, cream letter postal vote literature differentiated from their later bi-lingual blue letter campaign, and an Eve of Poll mailmerged to include polling numbers, so that voters without polling cards would still be able to fully exercise their vote.  With Labour busy targeting the other K&C ward having an election, and with a Tory campaign that never recovered from its initial complacence, Linda’s 44.8% victory is a testament to Liberal Democrat community politics and a shot in the arm for the party as it prepares to head to Liverpool.

Two results from the towns today, Lib Dem Malcolm Douglas held the Pinewood ward on Whitehill TC with 70% of the vote, and Liberal Democrat Helen Pighills held the Northcourt ward on Abingdon Town Council.  The Abingdon team’s victory in Northcourt keeps the complexion of the Town Council itself a very fetching 100% yellow!

Congratulations to all of our successful campaign teams, and the best of luck to all candidates and campaigners in the field.

ALDC By-Elections Team