Hat tip to Iain Dale who pointed to yesterday's Inverness Courier article about Charlie Kennedy, The I'm no alcoholic, says Charles, the bit that caught my eye was this bit in a rambling explanation of why he should still be leader.
"...the week before Christmas, in a council by-election, we won a safe conservative ward with a 70 per cent swing in our favour - after David Cameron has taken over as leader of the Tory Party."
I've been doing some checking on the ALDC site and I can't find any LD win with 70% swing at all. This is the FULL list of all elections in December with the LD-Con swing. I assume he means the Forest Heath DC by-election in Red Lodge which was a gain with a swing of 37.8% which is superficially impressive unless you realise that the previous election was Conservative 56%, Independent 44% and the Lib Dems didn't stand.
Also it would be ignoring the Bournemouth by-election in Littledown & Ilford on the same day where this in 2003
Liberal Democrats 50.9%
Conservatives 30.9%
Independent 11.9%
Labour 6.2%
into this a week before Christmas
Conservatives 67.8%
Liberal Democrats 20.0%
Labour 8.3%
BNP 3.8%
That's a 34% swing LD to Con
If he's going to take individual council by-elections as a vindication of his performance, Kennedy ought to make sure the facts match the spin.
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