You may notice that the Liberal Democrats don’t feature in the first two graphs of the by-election result in Barnsley Central last
night. Or, rather, they do – they’re just subsumed under the ‘Others’ category, having finished in sixth place. Second in the general election, sixth last night. The 1,012 votes for the Lib
Dems put them behind Labour, UKIP, the Tories, the BNP and an independent candidate called Tony Devoy. Their share of the vote has fallen by 13.1 points on last May’s result. This was an
unequivocal, almost ritualistic, beating. Blood everywhere.
And the other half of the coalition hasn’t escaped unbruised either. The Tories finished third in the general election, third now – so what’s changed? Only that the party directly above them has switched from the Lib Dems to UKIP. Yes, Farage’s troops posted their best ever by-election performance.
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