Rarely can so much effort have gone into generating such a low turnout. Barely one in five voters bothered yesterday, and so Labour's Jude Robinson was quite right to express caution when asked on BBC Radio Cornwall this morning to assess the significance of her victory in the Camborne North by-election.
The losing parties will be even more willing to downplay the result, particularly the Liberal Democrats. They seemed shocked to discover that their campaign slogan "Only the Liberal Democrats can beat the Conservatives" no longer works, particularly when the voters know full well that only the Liberal Democrats are keeping the Conservatives in government. Life in a coalition is certainly tough.
When this council ward was last contested in June 2009 it was won by the Conservatives despite the presence of an Independent candidate. Yesterday there was no Independent but the Conservatives still lost ground. In 2009, Labour came fifth, behind Mebyon Kernow, and with only 11% of the vote. Last night MK managed only 32 votes, just one more than the Greens.
I think Jude's success will make the Cornwall Council chamber a more interesting place - a lone voice, to be sure, but a voice which is clearly one of Opposition and not confused by the Con-Lib coalition deals at Westminster.
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