Gwyneth Dunwoody, couldn’t stand her politics, loved her attitude. She was, as all the obituaries say, a New Labour defying parliamentary. She was also a patriotic and principled Euros-ceptic. You don’t see many of them in New Labour.

Mike Smithson over at PoliticalBetting.com reckons the Tories could win it if they translated their national lead to a local 8% swing. Guido is not so sure, LibDems live and die for by-elections and if Labour are smart enough to choose someone local in Gwyneth’s mould, rather than a New Labour clone, they could defend it successfully by running ‘against’ the Westminster establishment. All to play for…