Great that Nigel Scott romped home in the Alexandra ward by-election with around 50% of the vote – fantastic! I’ve known him for many years and he’ll be a great councillor.
It was an interesting by-election in that both Labour and Tories really threw everything they had at it in a way they haven’t done for a while.
I guess for the Tories they were trying to see if there was any resurrection possible – they don’t have any councillors anywhere in Haringey – and their answer was no. And Labour were probably both desperate not to come third and can see the writing on the wall for the local council elections in 2010 when the view is that the Lib Dems will take it over after 40 years of Labour rule. Afraid the writing is still on the wall!
Lynne Featherstone 
Did the Alexandra result not translate into a 6 per cent swing from the Liberal Democrats to Labour compared to the most recent election in 2006?
“the view is that the Lib Dems will take it over after 40 years of Labour rule”I seem to recall that that was your view in 2006 Lynne and they, er, didn’t.
No, Lynne, don’t tell porkies. The Lib Dem vote was under 50% (almost 60% two years ago) and both Labour and the Conservative votes were up on average by 6.5%Given how dreadful Labour-run Haringey is, this isn’t what I’d call a brilliant result.Congrats on the win, nevertheless.
It was a fifth Lib Dem landslide by-election win in a row. You’ll be asking us to turn water into wine next! The Lib Dem share was 50 per cent instead of 56 – and almost double the Labour total.I think the slight increase in the Labour share is more to do with them having put in some effort, as opposed to big fat zero they did in 2006 in this area. It reminded me of the result in Muswell Hill in 2006, when a slightly more energetic Labour candidate added over a hundred votes – and got buried five-and-a-half-feet under instead of the usual six – as happened here. NW