POLITICIANS are adept at applying gloss to election results, no matter how bad they really are. A silver lining can always be found.

Labour lost more than 14,000 votes in the Hartlepool by-election but the party's candidate, Iain Wright, hailed his narrow victory as a great result for Tony Blair.

The Tories were left humiliated but shadow defence secretary Nicholas Soames - despite using Anglo Saxon language to describe the result - remarked that it was only a by-election.

Both points of view smack of complacency because only the Liberal Democrats - despite their own disappointment at failing to win - can feel remotely encouraged.

It was not a great result for Tony Blair - far from it. It was a sharp reminder that trust has ebbed away and that the country is far from happy.

And the Tories would be stupid to dismiss such an appalling performance as a by-election protest. Trailing in fourth place behind UKIP is far worse than that. As the Tories prepare for their conference in Bournemouth next week, Michael Howard's task is looking hopeless.

The result in Hartlepool served to underline what we already knew. Many of those who voted Labour in such overwhelming numbers last time would like an alternative - but it's proving hard to find.