Could be interesting. I'll make sure I've got the news channel on 

I want to know. First result since the election.

Sure is a test of the coalition.

Who currently holds Oldham east?

Elwyn Watkins, the Liberal Democrat candidate, said he believed Conservative voters were switching to support his party.

"Who knows?" he said just a few hours before the polling stations closed. "I'm never a confident candidate in thinking the whole thing's going well but it looks like our vote is coming out."

It was Mr Watkins' legal bid that prompted the by-election - he accused the then-Labour MP, Phil Woolas, of lying about him to win the seat in last May's General Election.

No-one. The previous MP has been sacked.

Absolute disaster, it sounds like the LibDem vote has held.

Radio 5 live says that labour has won.

Yes they do! But I wanted the LibDems to be soundly defeated.

4000 majority prediction now! Looking better!

Labour winning by a good margin. Good enough for me. We have another one soon. See how that one goes.

You know when you see a house of cards crumbling....


whats the betting we have a general election soon

"This Week" is saying it's close but it's Labour.  Tory voters are apparently coming out to support the Lib Dems after the Tories sabotaged their own candidate's chances.

Hopefully the Lib Dems will be stuffed but it sounds unlikely.  Maybe they'll see Tory voters coming out for them when the Tory vote is being squeezed as an endorsement but really those voters will go back to the Tories at the election and they won't get any ex-Labour voters next time, that's for sure.

It's a farce until the libdems and the tories admit that it's not workable.

Cologne you know they won't do that!

I don't really understand how the political media are spinning this as a "must win" seat for Labour. 

Only seven months into the government and the government should be still on its honeymoon period.  The Tories took about three years before they polled higher than Tony Blair's Labour and then it was a brief spike in popularity due to the fuel protesters.

Considering the Lib Dem candidate was a victim of dirty tricks character assassination by Labour's Phil Woolas, if the government were making the tough-but-fair-decisions they claim they're making (which they aren't), the Lib Dem candidate would have taken the seat with absolute ease.

I dont like this celebration prior to the returning officer stating the result.
Turn out 48%!!

Sky news ticker is saying
Lib Dem president tells Sky news his Party has come a "decent second" to Labour(1:35am)

  14,718 for Labour  ,Result.
         
         
The seat was a Labour gain in 1997, but it was not a safe Labour seat. It's a three way marginal, the Lib Dems held the seat prior to 1997 and the Tories held it before that.  

Thanks for that Erinp, and for the background information

Cheers

LibDems 11,160 Conservatives 4,481 UKIP 2,029 BNP 1,560 Green 530 Monster 145 Eng Dem 144 Pirate 96 BusPass 67 Labour majority 3558

A tad worrying that the two silly parties received over 3000 between 'em.

Lib Dems claim they came a decent second

Yer get nowt fer been second!

Yeah it's nothing much to brag about

Cameron was more concerned about the LibDem vote falling away than that of his own party.  Hence the lacklustre campaign by the Tories.  Tory voters switched to  the LDs to ensure they weren't humiliated, (allegedly) and to prolong the life of this coalition.  They are anxious to avoid another General Election

How do people know this?
Is someone keeping a secret record of who you voted for last time or can they just tell from the way you mark your 'X' ???

Having to go to Oldham cos Rochdale wouldn't have you isn't either