The non-triumph of a by-election win

By-elections have a important role in the mythology of British Politics. Shock by-election wins - like the Liberal Winning at Orpington  in 1962 send earthquakes through the political parties.
Labour have and will try to make much of winning the by-elections held on 15th November 2012, but the reality is that they are dire results for all the political parties and

At least Labour won and their share of the votes cast is up - so a triumph.

The result from Cardiff South and Penarth was

Labour        17,262 now 9193
Conservative12,552 now 3,859
Lib Dem        9,875 now 2,103
Plaid Cymru   1,851 now 1,854
UKIP             1,145 now 1,179
Green                554 now 800
Christian Party   285 now 0
Socialist Labour     0 now 235
Communist Party 196 now 0

Although I could be posting the result from the latest by-election in Manchester - where Labour again 'won' but 70% of electors didn't bother to vote.  It ought to be a real wake up call for politicians of all parties, but more importantly, electors need to realise that not voting doesn't help. No politician has failed to take a seat because they were so embarrassed by low turn out.  Not voting makes it too easy for the bad politicians to win.  Tell them your not voting and they can stop canvassing you, stop leafleting you, stop paying you any attention what so ever. Russell Brand is a complete idiot with his call for people not to vote. People have different views - some method is needed too determine what si to be done - if anyone has a better system than voting, I'd like to know about it. As Churchill said democracy is the worse system, apart from all the others.  If you think democracy is bad, I recomend a year in Afganistan, or imbabwe or Syria or North Korea and see what you think then.