The Lib Dems were rewarded for their stance on Brexit, just like they were rewarded for opposing Iraq

Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable told me just over a year ago to pay attention to council by-elections. We’re doing a lot better in them than we are in the polls, he said, just like we were when we had our last surge in the wake of the Iraq War. The Liberal Democrats fiercely opposed that unpopular conflict, by contrast to the “main” parties, and were handsomely rewarded at the ballot box.