On Saturday evening, I headed back to Sunderland for the Lib Dem thank you party for the Sandhill by-election. The ward had previously been safely Labour but Stephen O'Brien stormed from 4% to 45% for the Lib Dems on 12th January. The party was held in the flat of Cllr Niall Hodson. Before 12th January, he was the entire Lib Dem group on Sunderland Council. He won his seat from Labour in May last year, taking a modest 66% of the vote. Now he is Lib Dem group leader.
The very noticeable point about Sunderland Lib Dems is how young they are. I was the oldest person at the thank you party and I felt as though I was the oldest swinger in town when I arrived. Most of the people there were born after I was first elected to Gateshead Council in May 1987!
Lib Dem youthful ambitions were showing strongly. The party in Sunderland has great plans for growing over the next few years. The Conservatives could soon be displaced as the Official Opposition in the City. And Labour are completely clueless as to how to respond to the new kids on the block.
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