David Goodall reports: After the result last Thursday I must firstly thank the people of Southampton for clearly voting for the Liberal Democrats in much larger numbers than in the past. The contest in Southampton Itchen is undoubtedly one between the Liberal Democrats and Labour, as people switched in large numbers from Labour to Liberal Democrats and did not see the Conservatives as a viable place to take their vote to.
Thanks to must also go to the many people who helped my campaign through canvassing, leafleting and sticking on address labels in a good attempt to contact the 45,000 plus households in Southampton Itchen.
The contest was a hard fought one with the arguments confined to policy and not personal issues, which is the way politics should be conducted.
So finally my congratulations must go to John Denham on retaining his seat, next time I am sure we will give the Labour Party a much closer contest and commiserations must go Flick Drummond my Conservative opponent, who also failed to gain her Winchester Eastgate county council seat on the same day, she lost out to my Liberal Democrat colleague Pamela Peskett.