Thirty-four per cent. Not a bad turnout in the circumstances for David Davis's self-inflicted byelection in Haltemprice and Howden. I'm pleased for him that it wasn't a complete shambles. That wouldn't have done anyone any good.
But I remain unconvinced that he's achieved anything useful. In interviews this morning, Davis says he's struck a chord with voters on the "freedom agenda", and raised the salience of the 42-day pre-charge detention issue and related controversies such as the DNA database and ID cards.
He got 10,000 emails during the campaign, 99% of them supportive, plus the backing of some celebrities, as well as the opposition of 25 candidates - not including Labour or the Lib Dems. The outcome: a majority of 15,355 - three times its 2005 level - and claims (disputed) that public opinion has turned decisively against 42 days.
It's been a long night waiting for the result (one recount for second place) in Yorkshire, but he doesn't sound too convinced himself. He'll be back at Westminster on Monday, but not as shadow home secretary. He'll be less well-placed to promote his agenda, won't he?
And he's placed a question mark around his judgment and reputation as a team player. At least, that's what I think, and I meet few people in what Davis dismisses as the "Westminster village" who disagree. That's the bit that makes me uneasy. Unanimity usually does.
Bloggers and newspaper letter-writers have been vocal in the MP's support, political professionals have been quietly embarrassed by what strikes many as an act of pointless exhibitionism. 42 days was already in deep trouble, Davis's party was more or less united against it.
And the public figure who has done it most harm this week - as Martin Kettle points out in today's Guardian - was Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI5, who spoke out strongly against the measure during her maiden speech in the Lords.
My hunch is that 42 days will be sufficiently mauled by the times the Lords have finished with it to make it hard for Gordon Brown to proceed. As with the case for ID cards, the government has lost the argument, though my own scepticism about the ID bill is pragmatic - too expensive, technology probably won't work, won't deliver what ministers promise.
That's not the libertarian argument. Try as I may I don't recognise the charge that we're sleepwalking into a police state, not least when someone like Manningham-Buller emerges from the Whitehall woodwork to bite a big hole in government policy.
