“Lib Dems suffer as Labour and UK Independence party win seats”, reads the headline in this week’s Bucks Herald.
Only partly true. Yes, we Liberal Democrats did lose our group leader, defeated by the Conservatives in Aylesbury. But we also made important gains, which the newspaper report totally ignored.
surely the two key results outside Aylesbury town were LibDem victories, in Winslow and Waddesdon, and in both cases it was the Tories who were defeated.
Indeed, if you add on the loss of another seat by the Conservatives in Buckingham to Labour, the Tories were the big losers in the Buckingham constituency.
The Bucks Herald might argue that they were taking Aylesbury Vale District Council results as a whole, on the Liberal Democrat certainly did make net losses.
But nothing like the losses the party was making elsewhere in the South, and nowhere near as bad as the rout in parts of the North.
But our party fights elections on a constituency basis, and by this measure the Buckingham Liberal Democrats had a day of outstanding success on May 5, and in areas where the Conservatives are traditionally strong. And it was a considerable advance on the result in the elections four years ago, when the party lost seats to the Conservatives
Avril Davies and Corrie Cashman held their seats in Pitstone and Cheddington respectively. And David Vick and. Llew Monger won seats from the Conservatives in Waddesdon and Winslow.
While LibDem fortunes were slumping in opinion polls throughout the country, the Buckingham constituency Liberal Democrats fulfilled their plan to perfection and doubled their numbers.
It’s a pity the Bucks Herald didn’t recognise this as a story.
