Guardian talks of "strong revival" by Cornish Lib Dems

As the local elections approach, the Liberal Democrats and the recent rise in their fortunes are gaining more coverage.

The latest example is a Guardian article by Steven Morris which talks of "what increasingly seems to be a strong revival in the party’s fortunes in Cornwall".

He writes:

The Lib Dems have won a succession of council byelections in Cornwall and are now once again the biggest group on the council with 43 members, governing in coalition with the independents. 

Lib Dem loyalists are buoyed both by the national party’s resurgence and by a report in the New Statesman claiming that Lynton Crosby, who helped the Tories into government in 2015, has warned the prime minister, Theresa May, that if she called a snap general election she would lose all the Lib Dem seats her party gained in Cornwall. 

The Lib Dems are fielding candidates in all 123 Cornwall seats at next month’s council election, 31 of them new members.

The prominent role being played by new members is one of the striking features of the article.

Talking of Lynton Crosby's fears, which were based on polling the Conservatives have had conducted in former Lib Dem seats, there was an interesting post on PoliticalBetting.com the other day.

Mike Smithson wrote:

The assumption was that Tories had carried out the polling ahead of a possible early election and this was merely scoping the ground. 

Now PB is being told that the reason for polling these seats was nothing to do with that but out of worries about where the expenses probe, first highlighted by Channel 4 News, was going. 

If these went to court it is possible that some GE2015 seat outcomes could be discarded and there would have to be fresh elections in the constituencies. Mrs May’s majority is so small that it wouldn’t take many such losses for that to be wiped out.