On the face of it, a clear transfer of councillors from LibDem to Tory:
Caveat: These figures, taken from DCC's website, include the results of three by-elections since 2005.
These figures might lead you to a headline of "Conservatives up by 78%, LibDems down by 58%". A massive endorsement of David Cameron, you might think.
But if you look at share of the vote, rather than councillors, a different story appears:
Some observations:
- The massive majority LibDems have enjoyed in Devon over the last four years was based on slightly fewer votes than the Conservatives received.
- Far from a massive endorsement of Cameron, the Tory vote went up by just 4%.
- Support for Labour halved, yet they received the same number of councillors.
- Almost four times as many voters supported UKIP, the Greens and others as supported Labour, but their views are represented by fewer councillors than Labour.
