Almost every Thursday various council by-elections are held across the Kingdom. Pored over by only a handful of those in the areas affected, plus a few anoraks (yes, like yours truly) on Vote 200x.
Suddenly, this week we psephological amateurs have had our dirty little private gatherings gatecrashed by the BBC and others. Why the sudden interest in the elections to a handful of council seats, which happen to show a respectable swing to the Conservatives? Is the twilight time between the closing of Labour’s conference and Sunday morning in Blackpool really so quiet?
Or is it that Labour spin doctors, realising that they’ve probably done too good a job in whipping up snap-election fever, are now back pedalling, so as not to force Gordon Brown into having to call an election (or face a rousing chorus of chicken noises from the Conservative next week)?
