The Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election count remembered

John Rentoul writes in the Independent on Sunday:

A sound bite, a photo opportunity and a Government defeat in the Commons: Nick Clegg is suddenly a player. He took a high moral tone against the Prime Minister: "If someone is prepared to die for this country, surely they deserve to live in this country." He posed with Joanna Lumley and David Cameron outside afterwards.

Then, for the first time since the days of James Callaghan, the Government lost a vote on an Opposition motion – this one tabled by the Liberal Democrats.

Suddenly, I was taken back to Saddleworth moor, to memories of hanging around the market in Littleborough, interviewing potential voters, for The Independent. The question that I was trying to answer in that by-election campaign was not whether John Major's Government would lose the seat, but whether Chris Davies would win it for the Liberal Democrats, or Phil Woolas for Labour.

My straw poll in the market was inconclusive, but the Lib Dems won a famous victory and sang "Walking in a Liberal Wonderland" into the early hours of the morning.

Those of us who were there will also recall singing "You can stick your Daily Mirror up your arse".

Happy days.