Sedgefield - The One to Watch

Liberal England has a very interesting and plausible analysis on the current by-election fever sweeping through Ealing and Sedgefield. Whilst Labour and the Tories are fighting each other intensely in Ealing Southall over which councillor will defect, to whom, next. The Liberal Democrats are catching up fast in Sedgefield by campaigning on the local issues that matter to local people. Labour and the Tories can continue to play their powerbroking nonsense games, but what will really be on the minds of the electorate, on thursday, is who has been campaigning on the issues that matter.

Below is an extract from his blog article:

As I said on 18 Doughty Street the other night (hem, hem), when MPs resign to take highly paid jobs elsewhere, their party often does very badly in the ensuing by-election.

I also said that Tony Blair sometimes treated his constituency as no more than a film set - rushing up to Trimdon to announce he was going to stand down as prime minister and then resigning as its MP as soon as he had.

So maybe we should be watching the result in Sedgefield more closely. Up till now, this contest has been rather overshadowed by the defections and similar malarkey in Ealing Southall.

Certainly, Paul Routledge thinks so. He writes in today's Mirror:

The Tories, a poor second in 2005, are nowhere. But the Liberal Democrats are closing the gap rapidly on Labour.


- Richie Northcote