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Darren Hague's avatar

I'm sorry it didn't work out for your candidate this time around.

We fared better - after 40+ years of electing only Tories we were successful in electing a Lib Dem councillor. She almost made it last year, losing by 143 votes and this year won by just over 100 votes.

In my opinion these are some of the relevant factors:

* Our candidate is a local resident and stayed active all year, leafleting and engaging with the community every month or so.

* Discontent with the Tories, even among lifelong Tory voters.

* The Tory candidate was a new name, not one of the previous councillors

* There was almost no attempt by the Tories to get out the vote - their teller was not taking any details

I suspect it's easier down South to turn middle-class Tory voters into Lib Dem voters - it seems like up North there is more of a challenge with working class voters tending to become more polarised?

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