he results of the recent by-elections in Tamworth and Mid-Bedfordshire were spectacular. Sweeping away huge Tory majorities in what ought to have been safe Conservative seats, Labour broke electoral records and put a spring in the step of its activists. The outcome was so impressive that the party should now stop worrying about whether it is really going to win the next election. History suggests, however, that it should now start worrying instead about whether it is going to win the one after that.
