Despite holding on to Eastleigh, the Lib Dems' national opinion poll ratings have remained low.

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However, national opinion poll ratings continue to hover around the 10% mark.

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But a loss of 1, 400 seats would imply a lead over the Tories in terms of a national equivalent vote share of only some 4%, which would be very disappointing compared with Labour's 31% national opinion-poll lead.

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But since opinion polls suggest that no national party apart from the big three will poll more than 1%, votes for the smaller parties are likely to be wasted in the traditional manner.

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Still, the same poll showed 50% of the voters had a positive opinion of the National Front, higher than the 34% who viewed the opposition favorably.

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And an opinion poll conducted by BVA-Absoluce suggested that 52% of voters now saw the National Front as a "party like the others".

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