We’ve been through some tough weeks as Liberal Democrats. And we’ve suffered in the opinion polls for it. But, at the end of the day, only one kind of poll counts. Tonight the electorate in Dunfermline and West Fife spoke loud and clear. The score so far for 2006? Liberal-Democrats 1 Everybody Else 0.
This is bad news for Labour, who lost a massive majority. Actually, it’s worse news for Labour, because their majority was toppled– and the Lib-Dems won comfortably — at our lowest point politically for years. It’s worse worse news for the SNP, who hoped to come second. And the Tories? 2,702 votes. A very, very poor fourth.
Pundits — especially of the Times and Telegraph variety — have been claiming for weeks that the Liberal-Democrats are now finished. Will we see public apologies and recantations in tomorrow’s papers?
Like heck we will.
The pundits make their living by saying what their readers long to believe, in the most controversial and opinionated way possible. What we see when we read them is not artless tat. It is an incredibly valuable insight into what the Tories so desperately want to believe: that the Lib-Dems are finished, and that Cameron has rescued them permanently from their downward spiral.
Will the Tories cease to believe this in the face of the evidence?
Like heck they will.
So, is it back to business as usual in Westminter tomorrow?
Like heck it is.
Simply, at the Tory high point, and our low point, we have toppled Labour and pushed the Tories into fourth place. Whether or not there is public hand-wringing, there will be pacing of corridors in pin-stripe suits and blue rinse tomorrow. The Tory dream, for now at least, is finished.
