"New blood ends decades of Tory power!" declares the Surrey Guardian (aka Surrey Advertiser) this week as it reports the victory of an Independent candidate Diane James in a by election for the vacant Waverley Borough Council seat for Ewhurst.

The former incumbent of the seat, the Conservative Richard Warby had resigned and the Conservative candidate Richard Cleaves failed to retain it. The result was close, with Mr Cleaves losing by just twelve votes.  The election result was curious for a number of reasons. The Labour vote did not just collapse - it almost ceased to exist.  Labour's Richard Chaundy received just six votes.  The Liberal Democrats, who had almost snatched the seat from the Conservatives at the previous election, saw their vote fall by nearly a hundred votes, even though there was an increased (and rather impressive) turnout of 58.6% of the electorate.[1]

The point that puzzles me is this.  Prior to the election, the Liberal Democrats held 29 seats, the Conservatives 28 and the Independents 2.  Now the ratio is 29:27:3.  I recollect that Waverley Borough Council had "gone" Lib Dem quite a few local elections ago anyway, in which case "decades of Tory power" ended then, not now.  Quite obviously I am not possessed of all the facts and no doubt someone will enlighten me.[2]

This is one of those factual reports that are likely to prove very useful to refer to from time to time when listening to Labour's NewSpeak and particularly when Gordon Brown starts spitting "facts" in all directions.