The strange rebirth of Liberal England (THREAD): Lib Dems are having a pretty good set of elections (haven’t been able to say that for a while). Here are a few places which prove there’s life in the dead parrot yet. Obvious first, Richmond and Kingston. V good gains against Cons.
But also the Lib Dem corpse is twitching in the north of England against Labour. V good gains in Hull. 
And places like Sunderland, Shefffield and Liverpool too. They’re modest but they’re there.
They’re also making modest gains in the south against the Tories: In Mole Valley, Tandridge, West Oxfordshire, plenty of other places too.
Overall with 60 net gains so far, it’s the best night for the Lib Dems since 2004. Why? Outside of south west London it’s not much to do with Brexit...(though that is a sizeable whack of net gains)...
Rather slowly but surely Lib Dems perhaps showing glimmers of reestablishing themselves (with UKIP gone) as none of the above party against near one party states in local councils. Weirdly, for them, that, not Brexit is probably best chance of long-term growth in England.
