Their proposed seat would include the following wards:

From Chesterfield Borough: Brockwell, Dunston, Hasland, Holmebrook, Linacre, Loundsley Green, Moor, Old Whittington, Rother, St Leonards, St Helens, Walton, West and Barrow Hill & New Whittington.

From NE Derbyshire District: Dronfield N, Dronfield S, Dronfield Woodhouse, Unstone, Gosforth Valley, Barlow & Holmesfield and Brampton & Walton.

The only difference between the Lib Dem proposals and mine is that I did not include Old Whittington and Barrow Hill and New Whittington in the Chesterfield seat, instead including Wingerworth.

The justification the Lib Dems give for splitting Chesterfield Borough in this way is identical to the one I gave; that NE Derbyshire is an entirely artificial grouping including disparate communities to the north and south of Chesterfield linked together by a swathe of rural Derbyshire to the west of Chesterfield.

It is not really that surprising that the Lib Dems have proposed boundaries if this kind. I mentioned to Mark Senior ages ago on this thread that my plan was very kind to the Lib Dems. Probably their best chance of drawing up a Derbyshire seat that is winnable from their point of view is to have one linking the western half of Chesterfield with Dronfield, albeit that the seat would in all likelihood be a three way marginal.

The rest of the Lib Dem proposals for Derbyshire are utterly bonkers. Mention has been made on the Derby N thread of their proposal for a redrawn Mid Derbyshire extending to not far from Derby city centre. Further north they propose an “Amber Valley” seat covering a thin strip of territory stretching from Shirebrook down to Ripley & Marehay ward. They also bizarrely propose putting Clay Cross in Derbyshire Dales constituency.

But neither is there any point in not enjoying the moment we have at the moment-a fairly useless Labour Leader who is not seen as a Prime Ministerial figure, and Tory GAINS at local elections a year into government (something which I still think is almost unprecedented).

Nobody warmed to David Cameron in opposition (in my view mainly because he failed to articulate a unique platform for the party distinct from the ‘left’) but he was almost always ahead in voting intentions by enough to win a general election and people caould imagine him as Prime Minister even if they didn’t like him.

Ed Miliband by contrast is bobbing along with a bare minimum poll lead and is widel;y regarded as someone people can’t see as a Prime Minister. That is still very very important in determining how people will vote come a general election. We Tories know of what we speak-we were refusing to believe similar sorts of reaction to William Hague, IDS and Michael Howard. And Labour rightly laughed all the way to their next election victory.

So now the tables are turned. It is Labour with a failing leader and a party completely unwilling to believe it. Labour MPs and members desperately want to talk up generally poor polling and local election results as evidence that they are on course for power.

Been there, done that. I’m glad that Labour members are happy.

I know its fairly obvious, but I just thought I’d make thay clear.

Which-as with Chesterfield-just reinforces why Labour MPs shouldn’t get too excited by their performance in the local elections. The biggest swings from Labour were generally from the lib Dems in areas where Labour already holds all the constituencies or where they can only make one or two gains overall.

But what happened in the areas that will decide the next general election? A very poor performance I’m afraid. Worse that the Tories did under Hague in the corresponding local elections in 1999.

I just thank goodness that Labour MPs remain happy to keep Ed Miliband in place. Its going to be like the last parliament under Gordon Brown-where it became increasingly clear he was going to lose them the election but Labour allowed him to get on with it.
Will they never learn?

The swing from LD to Labour of 15.28% is the biggest I am aware of but would be interested to know how it compares with Sheffield particularly, where I understand that the Lib Dems were also surprised by the scale of their defeat.

One for you Statto’s out there- were there any swings bigger than 15.28% or any authorities where Labour made more than 23 gains?