Ah yes, good old politics

the real kind, I mean. The kind where we pay attention to vote counts in by-elections and what the implications are of a split.

The Tories lost their overall majority on Harrogate Borough Council, North Yorkshire, in the year's first by-election - despite increasing their vote.

Liberal Democrat Greta Knight recaptured a Woodfield seat in a contest caused by the death of a councillor who had been elected as a Lib Dem but later defected to the Conservatives.

Labour, which narrowly missed taking second place in the previous election in 2007, came last behind the BNP, whose vote share also declined.

Something about this gives me a peculiar kind of thrill. Not a nice one, I'll be the first to admit, but a thrill nonetheless. You take what fun you can find in today's political landscape.