What we need are Tory by-election defences
I must say I cannot get at all excited about Labour by-election defences in northern seats which have been held by the party for as long as anyone can remember.
There is almost never any interesting betting and it is hard to draw too many conclusions about the result outcomes except that the Tories are in as bad a position as we knew they were
Unfortunately, the last few by-elections have all fitted into this category and have barely been covered on PB.
What we need are some Conservative defences and it would be very interesting to see where opinion is shifting in the blue wall.
Alas, we very rarely see them because the government will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that it does not have to have such defences. Also, MPs are much healthier than they were and seat vacancies caused by illness or the demise of the incumbent are now very rare.