UK local by-elections, 2017

[parochial boy]

Completely off topic, but that area of urban sprawl between Southampton and Portsmouth is, without a doubt, the most depressing part of the country

[parochial boy]

Remember when the Lib Dems thought that their local by election results in the run up to 2015 was proof that their vote was going to hold up at the GE?

Best not to read too much into these sorts of things.

Also, Thamesfield is probably the worst seat for Labour in the Putney constituency, possibly in the whole of Wandsworth.

[parochial boy]

There does seem to be a pattern of strong Lib Dem results emerging here, certainly better than national polling would suggest.

I doubt that the national polling is going to be dramatically wrong with regards to where the Lib Dems are at. So, acknowledging local factor and all, is there an argument to be made that the kind of person who will vote at a local by-election (disproportionately middle aged, middle class and politically engaged) happens to correlate to the kind of person who, in 2017 at least, is more likely to vote Lib Dem?