This is the candidate the LibDems selected tonight to fight the Eastleigh by-election. His name is Cllr Mike Thornton. This is him at a council meeting. Hardly a surprise that he was so bored, listening to all those LibDem councillors drone on. I suspect this picture is going to be quite a popular one over the next three weeks.

Perhaps the LibDems know what they are doing – selecting someone local, who’s about as boring as they come. After all, he’s not going to fall into the trap that the Tory candidate has already plummeted into, and given her views on everything in the first day, no doubt pleasing the Tory faithful but offending a lot of other people in the process. That’s why I would have been a hopeless by-election candidate. I’d want to answer a straight question with a straight answer. Not the done thing. I can’t imagine Mike Thornton ever making that mistake.

Picture courtesy of @Matthew_Myatt