I’ll write a more considered piece on Eastleigh later, but here’s something to think about… Fifteen things we learned from Eastleigh.

  1. Voters will sometimes forgive a political party anything.
  2. Once the LibDems get in, it’s almost impossible to get them out
  3. Grant Shapps is a man of many talents, but running by-elections is not one of them
  4. David Cameron’s Euro Speech was a waste of his breath.
  5. Voters don’t like candidates who revel in Margaret Thatcher’s possible death
  6. If you pick a joke candidate, the electorate treat you as a joke
  7. Ed Miliband’s strategy of winning in the south of England is going really well
  8. Nigel Farage is spending the day self-flagellating
  9. People no longer feel embarrassed about voting UKIP
  10. If you gag a candidate, you get what you deserve
  11. You can’t out-UKIP UKIP
  12. The Tories should use Lynton Crosby to run this sort of by-election in future
  13. Don’t flood a constituency with MPs. It puts off voters
  14. To win ensure the outgoing MP has perverted the course of justice. Just saying…
  15. The Tories need to take a collective neurofen pill.