David Davis vindicated!

The results of the Haltemprice and Howden by-election, 2008, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Haltemprice and Howden by-election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Davis	17,113	71.6	+24.1
	Green	Shan Oakes	1,758	7.4	N/A
	English Democrats	Joanne Robinson	1,714	7.2	N/A
	National Front	Tess Culnane	544	2.3	N/A
	Miss Great Britain Party	Gemma Garrett	521	2.2	N/A
	Independent	Jill Saward	492	2.1	N/A
	Monster Raving Loony	Mad Cow-Girl	412	1.7	N/A
	Independent	Walter Sweeney	238	1.0	N/A
	Independent	John Nicholson	162	0.7	N/A
	Independent	David Craig	135	0.6	N/A
	The New Party	David Pinder	135	0.6	N/A
	no label	David Icke	110	0.5	N/A
	Freedom 4 Choice	Hamish Howitt	91	0.4	N/A
	Socialist Equality	Chris Talbot	84	0.4	N/A
	Independent	Grace Astley	77	0.3	N/A
	Christian Party	George Hargreaves	76	0.3	N/A
	Church of the Militant Elvis Party	David Bishop	44	0.2	N/A
	Independent	John Upex	38	0.2	N/A
	Independent	Greg Wood	32	0.1	N/A
	Independent	Eamonn Fitzpatrick	31	0.1	N/A
	Make Politicians History	Ronnie Carroll	29	0.1	N/A
	Independent	Thomas Darwood	25	0.1	N/A
	Independent	Christopher Foren	23	0.1	N/A
	Independent	Herbert Crossman	11	0.0	N/A
	Independent	Tony Farnon	8	0.0	N/A
	Independent	Norman Scarth	8	0.0	N/A
Majority			15,355	64.2	+53.5
Turnout			23,911	34.5	-35.7
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

With Labour running away from the opportunity to defend government policy the by-election could have had micro turnout but it didn't. David Davis has been vindicated in his courageous stance on forty-two days detention.

Looking at the also-rans, amazingly there are six women immediately behind Davis but this could just be because of candidate selection. And the Official Monster Raving Loony Party's hopes of getting their best ever result have been thwarted once again. Ronnie Carroll was looking for the lowest number of votes ever and failed - he didn't even finish in the bottom five. Here's a couple of tips - don't tell everyone that's your goal and don't run with a description saying "Make Politicians History" that was bound to pick up a few votes.

Is this the end of the English Democrats?

In 1990 a political party presenting itself as a credible force in UK politics fought the Bootle by-election and was outpolled by the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. Within a week the "continuing" Social Democratic Party folded.

This trend continued in the 1990s - there were times when serious "alternative" parties would decide against standing in particular by-elections rather than risk losing to the Loonies and seeing morale and credibility evaporate - see Wikipedia: Official Monster Raving Loony Party - Serious attempts to gather votes.

Tonight the Loonies once again outpolled a serious party. In Ealing Southall they got 188 votes, whilst the English Democrats polled just 152. Can the English Democrats seriously continue?